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letter written by the pupil to a relative or friend in the trenches. Sometimes the subject is more imaginative, as when the pupil is asked to comment upon the action and reply of a soldier who gave his knapsack as a protection to his superior officer with the remark, "I do not count; but you, you are of value to all the rest of us.'

In a similar fashion the war has entered into the instruction in other subjects. Manual instruction for girls is directed toward objects useful in the war. In the physical and natural sciences new or more precise information has been given to classes about antiseptics, drinking water, conductibility of heat and the best forms of garments for protection from cold, the absence of epidemics in 1914, the making of explosives; the manufacture of cannon, the principles of trajectories, the soldier's food, and the influence of alcoholism.

Even into the arithmetic class the war has entered in some schools. How long will it take a battleship to overtake a steamboat, if each moves at a certain rate? or how long can a besieged garrison subsist if its rations are cut down to a certain percentage of the usual ration? or how long will it take a party of engineers to dig a trench which ought to be completed in eight days when all work sixteen hours a day, if, after three days of work, a certain number fall ill, and the remainder are able to work only twelve hours a day?-these and similar problems keep alive even in pure mathematics the "ton du jour."

Detailed study of the war is not confined to one section of France, nor to France alone. A circular of the French ministry of Public Instruction states the principle that "the rôle of education at the moment [is] to second the French armies by informing the boys and girls of France why their country [is] fighting-for what past, for what future, for what ideas." In England we are told by Lord Selborne that "in some form or other the war has thoroughly permeated the elementary education of the country and the causes of the war have been most thoroughly explained to the children all over the land." Specific instructions for the teaching of the war in higher schools, as well as in elementary schools, have been issued by the educational authorities of England, France, Prussia, Saxony, Wurtemburg, Hungary, and probably by other states of Europe.

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In the second place, the war has created a demand for instruction in national patriotism. We have had newspaper accounts of the morning hate lessons of the Germans, and most of us have heard the story of the class of German children, who, in responding to the query what country they hated most, replied, America! A recent despatch through London [!] gives the text of some new German "hate-songs.' Such cases can not be taken as typical, but it is certain that the war has often displaced internationalism by a deep and intense, but very narrow nationalism.

The change in this respect is most worked in England, where, previous to the war, there was very little formal instruction in patriotism. France and Germany, as Mr. Jonathan French Scott has recently

told us so well, have for years consciously trained their young people in the duties of citizenship. They have taught the Hohenzollern tradition on one side of the Rhine, and the necessity for regaining Alsace and Lorraine on the other side of the river. In England the citizen has been expected unconsciously to become a Britisher. As the "New Statesman" said recently, "One's country ought not to be turned into a golden calf, or any other sort of a calf. Rather it is something living and real, without which we seem but guzzlers and beggars, without home, without lineage, without sun. It is created of the air and the earth, and all those ideals and experiences which transfigure the lives of men. To love it is as natural as to be happy. To serve it is as natural-and as difficultas to be honest or gentle or agreeable or virtuous. But to schoolmaster small boys and girls into this love and service is almost as superfluous as to hector them into loving a perfect mother, or to lecture them into a taste for honey or wild strawberries."

This has been the past attitude of the Englishman, but the war has witnessed a demand from school authorities, from upper class statesmen and members of the House of Lords that patriotism be taught in the elementary schools.

The Board of Education in several circulars, the London County Council Education office, various Teachers' Associations and the Welsh Board of Education have all pronounced strongly in favor of the use of the schools in the teaching of the war and of patriotism.

In addition to magazine articles many books have been issued to assist in the formal teaching of patriotism and civics. An interesting one of these is by Stephen Paget, entitled, "Essays for Boys and Girls; A First Guide Towards the Study of the War" (Macmillan Co., London, 1915). At the outset the pupil's interest is aroused as follows "In all your study of the war, make this your first and foremost thought, that the war is for you. It is you who will enjoy the new order of things when the war is done. Your countrymen are giving their lives for their country; it is your country, and in it you will pass your life. Our dead have died for you. . . . It is you who will find this world better than they found it. You will live in peace, because they died in war: you will go safe and free, because they went under discipline, and into danger, up to the moment of their death. You will have a good time, because they suffered. To you, who gain by their loss, and whose life is made comfortable by their lives laid down, comes the question, from countless little wooden crosses over graves in France and Belgium and Gallipoli, and from all the unmarked graves of the sea, Is it nothing to you? Why, the war is your war. You will enter into all that it achieves, and inherit all that it earns; and the miseries of it will be the making of your happiness. There are many good reasons why a man should fight for his country; but they come to this one reason, that he is fighting for the future of his country. You are the future. We older people so soon will be gone: you will stay here, you for whom your countrymen to

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Upon the moral value of the war we have the following most remarkable teaching: "But, oh, ye carefully brought-up boys and girls, bless ye the Lord, praise Him, and magnify Him forever- -see them now, what the army has done for them; how it has set them up, body and soul, brought out the best in them, stamped out the bad in them. . . . That is the grace, or magic, of discipline: it is able to make out of a man, a different man, not that the navy and the army are the only kingdom of discipline. We go under discipline at school, and at home, and in the competition of business, and in all times of illness or failure, and so forth. But in the navy and army, these three, Discipline, Obedience, Loyalty, are enthroned on every hour of the day's work, inseparable and insuperable; great in peace; greatest in war. And when we think what our sailors and soldiers are . . . we can believe that where Discipline, Obedience, and Loyalty are, there God is. . . . It is just the plain fact that the war is making a better nation of us. . .

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In the pamphlet issued by the Welsh Board of Education entitled “Patriotism" we have the following: "The British Empire- our country' in its widest sense does not consist of subjugated nations; it is the home of free peoples: therein lies its strength and the ground of our pride in it. We must see to it that we keep it free: we must strive to make it better."

Bullying, blustering, swaggering behaviour to other nations [is] just as objectionable to them as the big bully's conduct in school is to his school companions. The Germans' 'Hymn of Hate' is unworthy of any great nation.

A hundred years ago our fathers had to face a terrible danger-as we do now-that of seeing their liberties swept away by Napoleon, whose armies threatened Europe as Germany's do to-day. They rose up and fought until they won, and, by their sacrifices, they gave their children and grandchildren safety for a hundred years. It is now our task to do the same our fathers' voices are calling to us 'We did it for you you do it for your children'; that is why we are at war now. These hundred years of security, for which our fathers paid a heavy price, have given us increased wealth and comforts which we have enjoyed in the past-great books have been written, schools and colleges have been founded, inventions and discoveries have transformed our life, arts have flourished, civilization has spread, with all its accompanying advantages. We must not, however, forget that honor and freedom are above all these."

In the third place history teaching has been greatly influenced by a desire to understand the causes of the present war. As an aid to this a greater emphasis is demanded upon recent history, upon the study of modern languages, and the continual use, even of ancient history and the classics, to elucidate the present. One German writer would have German chil

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dren study modern languages, even English, so they can understand the lines of Rule Britannia,"

"All thine shall be the subject main,

And every shore it circles thine." Another would study modern history, even that of

England, in order to learn her means of attaining im

perialism. The movement is seen in France and England, but particularly in Germany. "Verganzine of Germany has been crowded with articles disgenheit und Gegenwart," the history teacher's magacussing pro and con the values of recent history (see Vols. IV, V, VI passim). To obtain time for regular class-work in the history of the nineteenth century— and several official instructions have enjoined such study-other subjects must, it is said, be sacrificed. Time should be taken from ancient history, medieval history, the classical languages, and even mathematics, in order to find room in the curricula for modern

history. It is even said that there should be less of Prussian dynastic history, and more of German nationalism, more of the history of other states, more of international relations, more of modern imperialism, Thus in the countries at war, the struggle has brought demands for far-reaching changes in the school curriculum. These demands, only in part satisfied thus far, seek a more practical education, and more instruction in science; less of classical culture and less of ancient and medieval history; in Germany, less of dynastic reverence; and in Germany and England, more of national patriotism; more training in industry and economics; and an appreciation of the present obtained through the study of national civics and of recent history.

An English view is shown in the following quotation from "Science Progress," (January, 1916, p. 277):

"The nation is wakening to the tremendous part that applied science is playing in the war. Does it yet realize that in the industrial and commercial struggle that must inevitably follow the war, science will play an equally important part? If we are adequately to meet the needs of the future, we must educate in natural science a larger proportion of the youth of the nation than we have done hitherto. This is essential in order to make good our deficiencies in the past and to replace those who fall in the war."

It is to be regretted that we cannot here review the influence of the war on archaeology, on historical research, on historical literature and publications, and in other departments of art and culture. One more quotation will show how far even England has advanced from pre-bellum days. Sidney Low, writing in the "Fortnightly Review" for February, 1916, says concerning the historians of the past century:

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I have sometimes wondered whether this tranquil confidence is more than a reflection of the peaceful atmosphere by which so many leading writers of that period were surrounded. Surely there never was a group of literary workers who spent their lives in such enviable calm. Tennyson, Browning, Grote, Mill, Buckle, Herbert Spencer, Ruskin, Froude, Freeman, Stubbs, Matthew Arnold, Swinburne, Walter Bagehot-what prosperous, respectable, unworldlyfortunate persons they for the most part were! These bankers, and bishops, and country gentlemen, these sons of wealthy shipowners and wine-merchants, these well-placed civil servants, in their decorous middleclass domesticity-no wonder they found it easy to take sane and temperate views! No wonder they wor

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The Minnesota History Teachers' Syllabus

CONTRIBUTED BY C. B. KUHLMANN, CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL, MINNEAPOLIS.

At the 1914 meeting of the Minnesota Educational Association the history teachers of the State decided to make an effort to more thoroughly standardize the history work in the high schools of the state. For this purpose a committee was appointed which was to outline courses and prepare a syllabus. This committee, which was made up of Profs. A. C. Krey, A. B. White and W. S. Davis, of the University of Minnesota, Assistant Superintendent W. H. Schilling, of Duluth, and Dr. O. M. Dickerson, of the Winona Normal School, presented its outline of courses at the 1916 meeting at which it was unanimously approved by the teachers present. It is expected that the syllabus itself will be published early in the fall. In view of the agitation which is going on all over the country for a revision of the high school history courses, teachers in general will be interested in the program of this Committee.

The Minnesota schools generally have followed the program of the Committee of Seven. It is true that only the larger schools of the State have found themselves in position to offer four years of history and many of the smaller schools can offer modern and United States history only in alternate years, but in the main the Committee of Seven report was followed, not only in the arrangement of courses, but in aims and methods as well. It is true that the development of vocational courses has, in our larger high schools, caused a revival of the one year course in general history as an introduction to courses in commercial and industrial history, but the number of schools offering these courses and the number of students taking them is not large enough to give their statistics a place in the State High School Inspector's report. Three years of history-if we include civics under that term— ancient to 800, medieval and modern (including English), and United States history and civics has been the program offered by practically all Minnesota high schools. Modifications of this plan have been confined almost wholly to such slight variations in the

content of the courses or the treatment of the subject matter as the individuality of the teacher or superintendent might suggest. To keep these innovations within reasonable bounds in history as in all other subjects, a committee of high school superintendents drew up the "Suggested Outlines for Study Courses in Minnesota High Schools" which was published by the State Department of Education in 1913.

History in the Minnesota schools has held its own pretty well. For the twelve years from 1903 to 1915 we even find a slight increase in the percentage of students enrolled. On an average, for the twelve years, in every one of our high schools, 24 per cent. of the students were taking ancient history, 11 per cent. were taking modern, 6 per cent. English history and 8 per cent. United States. If to these we add the courses in civics and economics we would find that more than 60 per cent. of the students are taking work in the social sciences. Looking at it from another standpoint, however, we note that the average pupil is taking history in the high school only about half the term. He has not for twelve years taken more than two years work in history. With conditions as they are it is unlikely that he will ever find time to take more.

There are of course many factors which tend toward a change in the history curriculum. The development of historical knowledge in the last decade and a half, the still greater development of the methods of teaching history, the change in our opinions as to what constitutes history, all made a re-outlining of the standard courses desirable. And while there have been these great changes in the study, we have still greater, and more far-reaching changes in the high school itself. The increase in membership, the change in organization, the changes in aims and objects of its courses, are all changes which the history program must take into account.

To get some idea of the attitude of the Minnesota schools on the present program, a questionnaire was

prepared and sent out to the high school superintendents of the State. There has been so much criticism of established courses, especially from the administrative side of the schools, so many proposals for radical changes, that the results were rather a surprise to me. They go to show, I think, that in our State the average superintendent is essentially a conservative. He is fairly well satisfied with present conditions and is inclined to make haste slowly with proposals for radical change. There are many things he would like to see improved, of course, but he is not a revolutionist.

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To begin with, he sees no reason for offering four "blocks of history when the average student takes only two and very few take more than three years work. Out of 91 schools replying to the question asking how many courses should be offered, only 19 wanted a four year course, while 58 preferred a three year course. When asked if there should be an increase of the time allotted to civics-a very pertinent question in view of the present day agitation for community civics, etc.-only 27 replied favorably while 53 answered in the negative. They were nearly unanimous on the proposition that history should be so taught as to give greater emphasis to social and economic aspects of development (78 for, 6 against), but only 12 were in favor of a separate course in economics as compared to 57 against. Even on the question of extending the time allotted to modern history there was great difference of opinion, 40 voting in favor of it and 44 against. On the correlative proposition of decreasing the time allotted to ancient history they seemed to be almost as evenly divided, 35 being in favor of the decrease and 24 against. Finally they were asked to rank the various courses in the order of their importance for the majority of students and it was found that American history was considered most important, modern second, ancient third, English history fourth, with commercial and industrial history at the bottom of the list.

With this situation as a basis the Committee proposed the following changes in the history courses:

1. Introductory Course: Ancient History to 1500 A. D. First semester: Ancient History to the time of Constantine. Second semester: From time of Constantine to c.1500 A. D. (Important phases of English history to be included.)

2. Modern History-including English-1500 to the present. First semester: 1500 to 1815 A. D. Second semester: 1815 to the present. (In both semesters increased attention to industrial, commercial and colonial development.)

3. American History. (A year course urged as necessary.) If only one semester can be devoted to the subject, the course shall begin with the Revolution.

4. Industrial and Social Development. A. The content of the whole history program to be so revised that there shall be throughout a proper proportion of economic and social to political and constitutional history. B. Also in the selection of reading, a specific

list of duplicate references on economic and social history to be included.

5. Supplementary Reading. The supplementary reading references to be so arranged that they shall afford not only additional information, but also systematic training in gaining accurate information. This shall be done by a progressive series of problems.

When the essentially conservative character of the Minnesota Superintendents is considered, and with it the fact that this syllabus is to be used mainly by the great mass of the schools, whose needs are essentially the same, it is not surprising that the committee was not inclined to consider any revolutionary changes in program. They felt it would be wiser to leave out of consideration, on the one hand the relatively small number of schools that were mainly concerned with the preparation for Eastern Colleges and on the other, the group that desired history courses designed to fit distinctively vocational needs. Because civics in our State has come to be a distinct and separate course not only in aims and methods, but more especially in its teaching personnel-civics also is to be omitted from the syllabus. On the other hand, the Committee was willing to recognize the demand for a greater emphasis on social and economic phases of history. They are preparing to outline changes in the matter of handling supplementary reading. reading. They are urging increased time for American history, which the teachers of the State demand. The big question the Committee had to answer was the one relating to the division point for the work of the first two years. Any date is of course a more

some

very great

or less arbitrary one, chosen for convenience sake. Many dates have been chosen at one time or another to mark the dividing line between ancient and modern history and not every history teacher is satisfied that the choice of the Committee of Seven was a particularly happy one. But while the Minnesota Committee were willing to emphasize modern history even at the expense of ancient, they were not prepared to go as far as the N. E. A. Committee which selected 1600 or 1700 as the date-not to speak of text book writers who want to carry the first year's work down to 1750. They felt that this would place too great a burden on the first year teacher. It was bad enough to add the period from 800 to 1500 in European history to her field without also insisting on her teaching American colonial history.

The date 1500 appealed to them in many respects as a desirable compromise. It would allow a greatly increased emphasis on the modern period without such an enormous increase in the work of the ancient-history teacher. The date 1500 would be of advantage because it does actually mark changes which even the most immature high school student may grasp, between ancient and modern times. The great characteristics of modern civilization, freedom of thought, freedom of religion, constitutional government, the development of the new world, are just developing. The strong national states of the present day have

just arisen. The Renaissance is not yet ended-the Reformation just beginning.

For the history program as a whole the division point affords some distinct advantages. For those who wish to emphasize modern history we may point out that the great movements just referred to can by this division be studied from their beginnings—which could not be done if they adhered strictly to the 1700 or 1750 date. By putting the division point at 1500 we will have a single line of development followed in the first year course from which all the following courses will diverge. We may represent the idea by means of a diagram thus:

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present growth," then clearly it will be possible to eliminate much of the material that is usually taught in the first year of history and the organization of this first year's work as outlined by the committee will not be an impossible task.

Periodical Literature

EDITED BY GERTRUDE BRAMLETTE RICHARDS, PH.D.

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English Criminal Law and Benefit of the Clergy During the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries," by Arthur L. Cross, in the "American Historical Review" for April, is of especial interest now as giving a historical background for a much-discussed present-day question.

John R. Silliman's article on "Old Mexico and New in Querétaro" (April "Scribner's ") is beautifully illustrated by photographs of a little known corner of Mexico. The article itself is one of the most interesting and reliable that has yet appeared.

"Our Foreign-Born Citizens" ("National Geographic Magazine" for February), with its splendid illustrations, is one of the most telling articles on the immigrant in Amer

The comparatively few schools that continue to offer English history have usually a semester course. In that time it would be folly to try to cover the whole field-much better to leave the beginnings to the introductory course in history and begin the Eng- ica that has yet appeared. lish history proper with the Tudor Monarchy. For Ex-President William H. Taft's article on "The Crisis " the American history one can not but feel that the ("Yale Review" for April) is an argument for changing colonial history is too essential a part of our history our foreign policy, for compulsory military training, and for to have us submerge it in English, or worse still consider it only as a part of general European develop- continuing our efforts to enforce peace by means of an organized world peace. ment of that period. It would be far better to give a whole year to American history and begin at 1500 -where the introductory course leaves off. As for commercial and economic or industrial history-the developments in these lines before the beginning of modern times have had so little influence on our commerce or industry that they may safely be omitted. But this is not true of the economic revolution of the 15th and 16th centuries, which the 1700 or 1750 dividing line would logically compel us to omit in these courses. Far better, again, to start the commercial and economic histories at the beginning of modern times-in 1500.

The teacher of ancient history who has found the time all too short to cover the period to 800 satisfactorily may well wonder what she can possibly do when the whole of the medieval period is added to her year's work. But she must recognize that the course will cease to be history in the proper sense of the term. It will become rather an introduction to the study of history. We may well give up any idea of preserving historical continuity in dealing with the Oriental peoples and refer to them only incidentally in connection with the story of the Greek and Romans. Even with these nations the political history will only be the thinnest possible thread. Perhaps this will not be altogether a loss if we are to concern ourselves with past conditions rather than past events as the new history would have us do. If we are to get away from the traditional basis of chronology and politics" and organize our history on the basis the children's own immediate interests, selecting from any part of the past those facts which meet the needs of

"The Polish Problem," by Dr. E. J. Dillon ("Fortnightly" for March) is an analysis of Germany's relations Europe of an independent Poland. with Poland, and speculations on the result to Western

The Rt. Hon. Sir Charles Hobhouse, M. P., writes on "America and the War" in the "Contemporary Review" for March. This is a continuation of the author's article on the same subject written a year ago. America's attitude toward the war, and toward England, comes in for much criticism, but the policy of President Wilson is unhesitatingly commended.

William E. Dodd writes on "The Social and Economic Background of Woodrow Wilson" in the March "Journal of Political Economy." This is more a study of the President's personal antecedents than of national affairs, although he pays much attention to the sections which have supported him.

K. K. Kawakami's article on Japan and Germany ("Forum" for April) is a good study of affairs and possible alliances in the Orient. He sees in Germany's proposal for an alliance with Japan a desire to "make up" on the part of the German Imperial Government.

"What Shall England Do? The Aftermath of the Social Revolution," by Arthur Gleason (April "Century "), is an attempt to answer two questions, Can the nature of work be ennobled? Can spiritual values be restored to modern life? in the light of the industrial democracy which is arriving in England. Kuno Francke's "The Duty of the German American" in the same magazine defines that duty as doing "whatever he can to secure a fair hearing for the aims and methods of German policies before the court of American public opinion," and to keep his oath of loyalty to this country without condition or reservation.

(Continued on page 161)

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