A Guide to Methods and Observation in History | Page 2

taught, in accord with your ideals and theories?

III. Source Material for History.
1. Primary Source Material.
(a) Monuments, inscriptions, buildings, tablets, columns, coins, tools and utensils, tapestries, pottery, implements, and all arch?ological and antiquarian material.
(b) Legal documents, e.g., statute books, charters, petitions, declarations, decrees, orders, court records, proclamations, treaties.
(c) Literary forms, e.g., manuscripts, notes, books, diaries, letters, paper money, newspapers.
(d) Narrative material, e.g., biographies, chronicles, memoirs, and accounts of customs, superstitions, ceremonials, etc.
2. Quasi-Primary Source Material, or the Auxiliary Sources of History.
(a) Historical geography, involving a consideration of the "origin, meaning, distribution, and changes of geographical names."
(b) Ethnology and sociology.
(c) Geology, paleontology, and physical geography.
(d) Paleography, or the science of ancient writings.
(e) Diplomatics, or treatises on official documents.
(f) Epigraphy, or the science of inscriptions.
(g) Numismatics, or the study of coins.
(h) Languages.
3. Secondary Authorities.
(a) Textbooks.
(b) Large historical works, e.g., Parkman's, Bancroft's, McMaster's, Fiske's.
(c) Biographies of historical personages, e.g., The Life of Cavour; The True George Washington; Bismarck.
(d) Compendiums of History, e.g., Green's Short History of the English People.
(e) Special treatises of historical epochs, e.g., Thwaites' The Colonies; Wilson's Division and Reunion.
(f) Encyclop?dic articles, e.g., "Waterloo" in Encyclop?dia Britannica; Cyclopedias of History; Paul Monroe's Cyclop?dia of Education.
(g) Dictionaries of historical names and references, e.g., Low's Dictionary of English History or Larned's History for Ready Reference, 6 vols.
(h) Philosophical, legal, and constitutional treatises bearing on history, e.g., Bryce's American Commonwealth; Ostrogorski's Democracy and The Party System; Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws.
(i) Historical novels, e.g., Hugo's Les Miserables; historical dramas, e.g., Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice; historical poems, e.g., Longfellow's Courtship of Miles Standish; historical essays and monographs, e.g., articles in the Historical Review and other contemporary magazines.
(j) Writings on local history, e.g., Cooley's History of Michigan; Putnam's Primary and Secondary Education in Michigan; Michigan Pioneer Collection Articles.
QUERIES
1. How can primary source material be employed by teachers of history in the elementary and high school?
2. To what extent ought it to be employed?
3. Would the course of history offered, the year in which it is taught, and the character of the school and its pupils, affect the answer? If so, how?
4. What place in the high school has such a book as Hill's Liberty Documents?
5. To what extent do the observations made by you coincide with your views respecting the use of primary source material?
6. Make a list of ten or more "source materials" you personally could use in your teaching of history. Why would you select the "material" you have?
1. How can the quasi-primary source material be used in elementary schools and high schools?
2. What phases of such material do you plan to use?
3. What is the basis for your selection?
4. Could every high school teacher of history make effective use of the material you mention?
5. What deduction follows from your answer?
6. What have been your observations respecting the employment of material of this kind? Would such material lend itself to use in every recitation period?
1. Should more than one textbook be used in a given course in history? Why?
2. Does the grade in which the subject is taught affect the answer?
3. How can the larger historical works, biographies, and compendiums of history be used in the high school?
4. Is it practicable to have "special reports" from such sources made daily?
5. Should the teacher expect all pupils to make frequent "special reports"?
6. In how far is it feasible to supplement the textbook by means of definite class-readings?
7. Should class-readings be assigned on a page basis, or on a topical basis, or be left to individual selection and spontaneous effort?
8. Should exact references be given or should pupils be encouraged to master the art of finding for themselves, within given limits, the supplementary data sought?
9. Precisely how can a high school teacher make use of such a treatise as Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws?
10. Make a list of at least twenty selections from historical novels, historical dramas, poems, essays, and monographs that you, as a teacher of history, could employ in the high school. What fact or event would you attempt to illustrate by each of these selections?
11. What use should high school teachers and pupils make of material dealing with local history?
12. What constitutes a good textbook in history for high school use?
13. Make a list of some of the modern textbooks on each of the following phases of history: (a) Ancient; (b) Medi?val and Modern; (c) English; (d) French; (e) American; (f) Civil Government. What would be your first and your second choices of texts in each of these six divisions, and why, specifically, would you make those choices?
14. What texts are used in the high schools you have observed?
15. What school authorities ought to select the texts to be used in the high school? 16. How far have your observations in the high school been in accord with your ideals and theories