Solution of the European History Problem BY D. C. KNOWLTON, CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL, NEWARK, N. J. It is one thing to draw up an outline or a course of study; it is often quite another problem to adapt such an outline or course to the work of the classroom. The difficulty arises, in part, from the fact that there is no one at hand to interpret the ideas of its framers, or to solve the practical problems involved in actually putting the course in operation. Not having been a party to the construction or evolution of the plan, what may seem perfectly clear to the average committee may be more or less unintelligible to the teacher entrusted with the task of carrying out their ideas. As one teacher has expressed it, the outline or course must "talk more' if it is to do the work for which it was intended. The suggestions made must be of a nature to harmonize conflicting aims and ideals, but must at the same time put these ideals in concrete form. The goal desired must be clear-cut and not a hazy, ill-defined objective, allowing the teacher to wander whithersoever his fancy may lead. Such a failure to mark out the path discredits the subject in the eyes of its critics, especially when the actual instruction is in young and inexperienced hands. On the other hand, with all this definiteness, full allowance must be made for individual initiative and peculiar method. Where promotion is by the half year, the problem of unifying the course and dividing it as between the various terms becomes a serious one, especially if it so happens that the exigencies of the school make it necessary for the student to suspend work in that field for one or more intervals of six months. These were some of the problems confronting a committee of the heads of departments of the four Newark (N. J.) high schools recently in interpreting the suggestions of the committee on Social Sciences of the National Educational Association. The following plan is the result of their joint labors. No effort was made to outline the work in detail, as it was felt that this was not the principal desideratum. The second year's work, that in Part II, had already been carefully analyzed and outlined to their satisfaction in the outlines prepared for the MAGAZINE by Dr. Knowlton and Dr. Wolfson. These proposals by which the New England Association report is made workable are offered to the secondary schools of the country as a solution of the vexed problem of giving the student what is vital in a course in European history, and at the same time avoiding the many pitfalls with which the path abounds. The letters B and A correspond to the first and second terms, respectively. The numerals refer to the year in which the course is offered. As the courses for the city of Newark are planned at present, European History-Part I and II-is required in the second and third year of the General and Arts Courses in three of the schools; Part I is optional in the second year of the commer cial course,1 and Parts I and II are optional in the second and third years of the Home Economics Course. The course is for five periods a week throughout the year. EUROPEAN HISTORY, PARTS I AND II. The aim of the two-year course in European history is to furnish a proper historical background for modern life, recognizing that in the past half century European development has been merged with world development. In Part I, the work of the second year, the aim is to trace the gradual emergence of the individual from a condition where the State was pre-eminent, i. e., to furnish the background for Part II. This year's work also serves as an introduction to American history. In Part II, the work of the third year, the aim is to follow the successes and failures of the individual in his efforts to shape government and industry in his own interests. PART I. 2B TERM. The first half of the term is devoted to (A) those contributions which ancient peoples have made to modern civilization. After considering (1) our debt to the Orient, i. e., to the Egyptians, Chaldeans, Assyrians, Babylonians, Hebrews and Phœnicians, the student is brought face to face with (2) the conflicting ideals of the city states of Athens and Sparta and their respective contributions to world culture. (3) The Greek colony is then presented as the medium for the dissemination of Greek culture, and (4) Alexander and his conquests are emphasized only in so far as they show the merging of Greek with Oriental culture. (5) The Romans are studied as conquerors, organizers and empire-builders. Emphasis is placed upon their system of law, their architectural and engineering feats, and the shaping of the Christian Church under their influence. (6) The fall of the empire into German hands is emphasized only so far as to bring out the contrast between the German and Roman ideals, and to indicate the extent of the influences emanating from each people. In the second half of the term, the emphasis is placed upon (B) the pre-eminence of the State, and the subordination of the individual thereto. This idea is also in jected into the first half term's work, but it is now made much more prominent. (1) The achievements of Charlemagne in the formation of the new Roman Empire form the starting point, and the idea is developed in connection with the study of (2) the medieval church, noting its struggle for temporal power, and in (3) the organization of feudal society. The half year's work ends with a suggestion of the transition from medieval to modern conditions as brought out in (4) the effects of the Crusades, particularly in connection with the rise of towns and the growth of commerce. The term's work closes with a survey of medieval culture. As much of the culture of Greece as is possible is made to center about Pericles, Socrates and Alexander. Augustus and Constantine serve the same purpose in connection with Roman culture. Charlemagne, Richard I and Gregory VII personify the great forces at work in the Middle Ages. 1 The choice is between history, algebra, German or French in the second year, and geometry, German or French in the third year. 2 The choice is between history, algebra, German, French or Spanish. 2A TERM. The emphasis in the 2A term is upon (3) the emergence of the individual as a factor in social and political life. The history now begins to center about the rising States of France and England. (1) Their beginnings are noted, and attention is then focussed upon the growth of liberty in the one, and the growing strength of the other, until their ideals and interests clash in (2) the Hundred Years' War. This study is followed by a consideration of (3) the decline of the church as shown by the Babylonian Captivity and Great Schism. These events and (4) the Renaissance bring out in sharp contrast the dawning national and individual consciousness of the 14th and 15th centuries, and the subordination of the individual which marked the earlier centuries. (5) The Protestant revolt still further emancipates the individual as it spreads throughout Western Europe. The efforts to check this movement draw attention to (6) Spain under Philip II, (7) the Counter Reformation, and (8) the religious wars in France and Germany. (9) The aims of the Tudor rulers, and (10) the struggle for constitutional liberty under the Stuarts are presented in connection with the progress of the reform movement in England. (11) English and French development as shaped by the Tudors and Stuarts, on the one hand, and by Henry IV, Richelieu and Louis XIV, on the other, are now contrasted, and the year's work terminates with (12) a survey of the early efforts at world dominion on the part of the States of Europe, especially as they affected North America, carrying this survey to the point where France and England appear as the principal rivals for world dominion (c. 1750). The biographical element is made more prominent in the work of this term, as the course indicates. 3B TERM. The third year opens with a resume, and a more detailed survey of (D) the environment in which the 18th century individual finds himself, examining this in its (1) social, political, industrial and commercial aspects, and noting (2) the new ideas at work which give rise to the so-called enlightened despotism. The status of the individual is determined by a comparison of (3) the constitutionalism of England with (4) the absolutism of France. The history of these two countries form the nucleus about which the discussion centers throughout the greater part of the third year. (E) Then follows a study of the struggle of the individual to shape this environment as it manifested itself in (1) the commercial wars of the 18th century, beginning with the War of the Spanish Succession and ending with the American Revolution, in (2) the French Revolution, (3) the Napoleonic Era, and (4) the Industrial Revolution. In this period the problems of contemporary Europe begin to take shape. 3A TERM. As the year 1815 seems to mark a convenient period of division between modern and contemporary Europe, this date is made the point of departure for following the progress of the struggle to the present day, noting how (F) European development finally merges with world development. Metternich is made the central figure of the period immediately following the Congress of Vienna, and the next thirty years to the Revolutions of 1848 are presented as (1) a struggle for constitutional government, where the principal gains are to be noted in England rather than on the continent. Napoleon III becomes the central figure in the next period (1848-1870), and this epoch is marked by (2) nationalist wars which result in the creation of the present Empire of Germany, the kingdom of Italy, and the present form of the dual monarchy of Austro-Hungary. The period since 1870 is considered in its dual aspect of (3) a merging of European interests with those of Asia and Africa, and (4) a further development of the democratic ideal. The work of this third year follows closely the outlines of European history prepared by Dr. D. C. Knowlton and Dr. A. M. Wolfson, which appeared in the HISTORY TEACHERS' MAGAZINE. History Course as an Expression of the Interests To-day BY L. A. CHASE, M.A., INSTRUCTOR IN HISTORY, HOUGHTON HIGH SCHOOL. I have been asked to say something regarding our course in history which seems to correspond to some extent at least to the recommendations of the Committee of Five. The course was in fact not framed with special reference to these recommendations, but is rather the outgrowth of the experience and the convictions of the instructor. It calls for the following assignment of subjects: First year: European History (including the beginnings of civilization and Oriental history) to about 1700 A. D. Second year: European History (including current history) to the present timè. Third year: American history (including current and local history). Fourth year: Civics (including current history and the study of current economic and social problems). Let me say frankly that my experience with this course is at certain points at present incomplete. Our texts in European history are new and now being used for the first time, and hence, at this writing, have not yet been pursued to the end. So far as it goes, our experience with the course is satisfactory. Let me say also that any course of this kind is quite surely the expression, in its working out, of the bias and prejudices of the instructor. I freely confess to prejudices and have not sought to suppress them in what we are trying to do. My experience, therefore, may not at all points be a guide to others. What follows, while it may seem at points just a statement of general principles, does in fact represent the view of history which we are hoping to realize. It is a point which is not fixed, but will change with new light and further experience. If one asks why history is studied at all, I suppose he finds his reason in a desire to satisfy a normal mental craving to know what is the background for an existing situation; as, for example, to learn how exchanges of bank credit were effected formerly as compared with the present time; or, by an appeal to the conservative factor in human nature, to justify the maintenance of the status quo by an appeal to the past; as, for example, a condemnation of the recall of judges by a reference to experience; or, again, the demand may be for an abandonment of a certain course of life because experience shows it to work badly, as witness the historical basis put forward by the socialist propaganda. And one may merely wish to get his bearings of great practical importance, as one must realize who, from week to week, reads the financial articles in the New York Evening Post" or "The Nation." In all such cases a present interest is the basis for a recourse to history, and few are the historical workers-I imagine-whose thinking is so abstract that they can free themselves wholly from such pragmatic considerations. Just now the struggle being maintained between the nations beats in upon our thoughts incessantly and with even painful reiteration. It is so colossal and all-embracing that one might suppose it would exclude other times than this from our minds; but it in fact trails behind it a multitude of ghostly circumstances which our minds conjure up in this awful presence. German militarism suggests French militarism of a century ago. War zone decrees suggest French decrees and British orders in council of that time, and it is so also with the status and work of the British navy. German military organization suggests the reforms of Scharnhorst, and may even take the mind back to the military organization of the Roman Empire. Or the suggestions of the past come by way of contrast. Having an appreciation of the American situation in the last great world struggle, derived from the unrelenting discourse of Mr. Henry Adams, one notes a difference in the present situation. Our protests on the detention of ships, the misuse of flags, the destruction of neutral ships and cargoes and the whole question of neutral rights in general-has a significance now that it lacked then, and will receive a consideration now which they did not get then. The belligerents will take note of our present navy. It may be simply a question of mechanism-the 42-centimeter gun calls to minds the artillery of former wars; while in the realm of communication comment is superfluous. Statistics of losses in battle-killed, wounded and missing-and of deaths from wounds and disease must fix our attention for a moment. Bulgaria, it was reported, lost nearly as many men in her first war with Turkey as did the North during the whole four years of the Civil War; while Germany, by the opening month of the present year, had lost, it was computed, upwards of three hundred thousand men killed in battle. When this is put beside the forty-nine thousand computed as killed in battle on Northern account in our great struggle, the effectiveness of modern weapons comes strongly into view. Yet when we note the strikingly low mortality from wounds and disease, the importance of aseptic surgery and other adjuncts to the saving of life is equally impressive. This may lead to a study of wounds themselves and the instruments making them. We may note the type of bullet now employed as contrasted with that used at Spottsylvania or Chattanooga, contrast also the velocity of impact and then wonder not that the proportion of mutilated men will probably be much less after this war than with us a half-century ago. The historical student is incessantly confronted with situations like these, and the degree of impression which they make on him is relative to his own keenness and thoroughness of preparation. With the war left out, contemporary life has been sufficiently complex and motive to call for historical study if only to keep our heads and our bearings. Shall we engross ourselves in cubist vagaries or shall we remember that there was once an artist called Angelo who did something worth looking at? Or, on the other side, shall we damn the output of contemporary modistes and forget that we have at least got by farthingales and ruffs? Shall Kansas order its women to desist from wearing earrings and recall not the workings of similar legislation in seventeenth century Massachusetts and in Rome in the days of Cato? Shall we plunge into the abyss of unrestrained eugenic legislation and forget that some people had survived without it? Shall we goad our lawmakers to renewed efforts to make us a complete democracy and forget the lessons of the democracy that we have? Well, the teacher of history at least should keep his head and should aid his pupils in doing so, and occasionally unmuddle the ideas of editors rather than best the tomtom in the dance of "the latest thing" in sight. As a teacher of history-as an implanter of historical notions (if that sounds more accurate)-I have discovered that my work grips my pupils quite in proportion as it seems to illuminate the present in accordance with one or more of the principles I have been developing. One instructor with whom I had occasion to discuss a certain recent text in history, was greatly disturbed because the book did not devote much space to the conflict between Patrician and Pleb in early Rome. The obvious fact was that she had happened to devote some special attention to this subject in her work at the university, and was thus possessed of a familiar corner in her universe which was to her very cozy and satisfying, but which to high-school freshmen made no appeal whatever. Had' the volume attempted to satisfy the requirements of the mentioned teacher, it would most certainly have been "taboo" to the boys and girls. The teacher had not observed that this same book discussed the use of copper in early times a matter of much local interest and appreciation-it took note of modes of travel, living, writing and fighting, in which even boys and girls are interested through contrast and comparison; and if it may not have presented them with as many battle thrills as they craved, Herodotus and Thucydides were at hand to fill the void. When these same pupils become sophomores, they will want to know some of the early history of the steam engine, of steam boating, of mining and smelting. It would be rather too much to expect them to grow enthusiastic over "The Social Contract," but when quotations from it are read conjointly with the opening lines from the Declaration of Independence, some matters dawn on them of which they had hitherto been oblivious, and such new light will some day do them good. As freshmen, the religious and intellectual situation in the Greco-Roman world about the year 1 of our era would hardly compete with the Athenian expedition to Sicily in interest, but they will get a glimpse of its importance and will store up some ideas against the day when such matters take a larger hold on their thoughts. The steps in Italian unity may be wearisome to the mind of John and Jane in the tenth grade, but, having interestedly followed the course of the European War from week to week, this Italian unity question takes on some real significance to them as they wonder just when Italy will take a crack" at Trieste and the "Trentino." Again, Owenism and New Lanark are far away, but New Harmony, Indiana, is nearer home. The depreciation of greenbacks in 1864 is a rather abstract matter, but just why the price of copper that year went to fifty-five cents is worth looking into. An epidemic of smallpox among New England Indians just prior to 1620 is hardly worth consideration, but it is otherwise with a vaccinated arm. Interest in the past is always to be had if you can find the point of contact. Sometimes, we must allow, the point of contact between past and present is difficult to establish, but it may yet be worth while to instill conception of a past institution or event. It is not easy thus to relate the Roman Principate to anything contemporary; yet it has been an institution that loomed large in the minds of men, and some appreciation of its real character seems worth while. In such cases as this the teacher has to fall back on main strength and inflict knowledge on an unwilling recipient. We must not expect him to be enthusiastic; he is a patient sufferer. Unless the course in history be purely formal, probably no two classes will have it presented in the same mode. Taking European history: in 1904 and '5 the aspirations of Russia and Japan called for emphasis; last year, the ambitions and mutual relations of the Balkan countries; this year it is the civil and military organization of Germany, the racial interactions of Europeans, questions of international law, treaties and alliances, economic forces and colonial interests, that demand appreciation. It may occasionally be newspaper paragraphs that establish for a moment this connection between past and present. Considerable use of this material is made at Houghton-with due reserve, of course and with good results. It may be a report in the New York "Times" of a discovery of Greek surgical instruments in Asia Minor; or an account of Masonic activities in Massachusetts just before the ride of Paul Revere on a memorable April day, appearing in the "Christian Science Monitor;" or a discussion of the work of Copley and American art in his day in the "Boston Evening Transcript;" or an account of contemporary conditions in Palestine found in the New York "Evening Post." Such newspaper disquisitions are called forth by some recent occurrence, and may be used to touch off" some dry-as-dust lesson in the text. My practice is to lay such clippings on my desk and at the psychological moment bring them forth. Those not likely to be of immediate use are stored away in labelled envelopes for future consumption. The weekly lesson in current history, based on such a magazine as "The Independent," "Outlook" or Literary Digest," will almost surely have in it points of contact between past and present-between the pupil's current interest and the contents of his history text. How is naval warfare now unlike that in former wars? What is the history of the submarine? What was the origin of Belgian neutrality? How was our taking of Vera Cruz in 1914 unlike a similar event in 1847? What was agreed upon in the Hague Conventions? Why did Italy not regard herself as bound by the terms of the Triple Alliance? Why is there a break in the railway connecting Finland and Sweden at the boundary of the two countries? Why is it proposed that the United States should pay Colombia twenty-five million dollars? From week to week pupils have presented to them a procession of occurrences which call for explanation in the light of history near or remote. If such queries can be satisfactorily answered and they are susceptible of a satisfactory answer-not only present, but also the past, as set forth in the text, take on a far greater interest. And this text should be one written with a view to current interests. Books of history reflect the dominant interest of the age. Once that dominant interest was ecclesiastical; again it was political; now it seems to be social and economic. Historians are impressed with the church and religion, with government, liberty and democracy, or with industrialism, socialism and reform, according to the main concern of their epoch. More than in Shelley's time, life now is a "Dome of many-coloured glass," and so the interest of historians is not more multifarious. The historian must have out his antennae in every direction to catch the ebb and flow of things and let nothing important go by unheeded. He cannot safely take refuge in some cranny of his own, lest what he sees and does be incomplete and disproportioned. This open-mindedness is especially incumbent upon writers of texts, for they undertake to deal not with a phase of life, but with life in all its leading phases. Now contemporary life in its leading phases includes radicalism and conservatism, socialism and individualism, reform and reaction, business and literature, art and penology, orthodoxy and liberalism, nationalism and disintegration, liberty and repression, education and illiteracy, migrations, repatriations and settlements, ambitions and rivalries, progress and decay. Who is the historian who can catch all the discordant ensemble on his tympanum, separate fundamentals from over-tones, and render a just account of it all for other people, especially for boys and girls? Well, the job must be done as well as can be, else we shall be treated to a very imperfect, partial and incom |