A Guide to Methods and Observation in History | Page 5

sincerely held.
(d) It inspires a love of truth.
(e) It develops charity for the past; forbearance for the present; and faith and hope for the future.
4. ?sthetic (appealing to the sense of order, beauty, and proportion).
(a) It stirs to an appreciation of the beauties of man's handwork in sculpture, architecture, painting, musical and literary form, industry and commerce.
(b) It reveals the beauties of human genius in adapting institutions and governmental forms and processes to desired ends.
(c) It refines and enriches the emotions by bringing them into contact with the emotional expressions of the race.
(d) It develops literary expression, and a taste for good reading.
(e) It thrills and inspires, and incites to more thorough-going efforts to attain ideals of proportion and order.
5. Practical.
(a) It aids in interpreting many allusions in literature and current expressions.
(b) It vitalizes geography.
(c) It gives a perspective for viewing all other branches of study, and hence for a fairer comprehension of them.
(d) It makes the experiences of travel intelligible.
(e) It gives a fund of information for use in conversation and public utterances.
(f) It breaks down provincialism; develops toleration, sympathy, and human interest; and hence makes intercourse with fellowmen more frictionless and cordial. (See Social Value.)
(g) It creates an interest in the resources, raw materials, tools, and processes of one's vocation, and fosters pride and contentment with labor.
(h) It explains racial, economic, religious, and social cleavages and prejudices, and makes for a truer democracy of feeling.
(i) It gives insight into legal, governmental, and business institutions and forms, and hence makes easier the adjustment to governmental and business requirements. (See Social Value.)
6. Cultural or Personal.
(a) It gives an elevated viewpoint from which better to observe all aspects of civilization to-day and thereby to comprehend them more fully.
(b) It furnishes an inexhaustible source of pleasure and satisfaction for leisure hours and for the consolation of old age.
QUERIES
1. Can you name any other "values" that should be included in the study of history?
2. Does the study of history yield equal value in each of the groups mentioned?
3. Which one of the groups of "values" seems to you most important and hence should receive greatest emphasis?
4. Can you suggest other items under each group of values?
5. Illustrate how a teacher might proceed to exercise the power of (a) imagination; (b) reasoning; (c) memory; (d) judgment; (e) comparison; (f) classification; (g) generalization.
6. From your observations do the teachers consciously strive to realize these values in the class?
7. Do the teachers seek to get back of the records of events and to discover the motives, ideas, and ideals that produced those events? What is the method used to do so?
8. Do the teachers assume "hard, dogmatic, and uncompromising" attitudes toward the interpretation of the facts, or do they give students opportunity to use their own judgment?
9. Does it seem to you that students really do put themselves back in imagination and live through the period they are studying? What is the secret of attaining this ideal?
10. Are students constantly seeking for "causes" of the historical events? How does the teacher secure this effort?
11. Are the textbook facts remembered largely as words, or do the students really enter into the spirit and significance of them? What evidences have you for your conclusions?
12. Does rote memory or associative memory receive the emphasis?
13. Does the teacher correlate the history lesson with other subjects of study? If so, how is this done?
14. Does the teacher correlate the history lesson with the life interests of the pupils? If so, how is this done?
15. Does the teacher explain the institutions, forms, and procedures of the past by reference to their counterparts of to-day? Are such interpretative means employed with sufficient frequency, completeness, variety, and clearness?
16. Does the teacher inspire patriotism? If so, how is this accomplished?
17. Is the work of such a character that students are infused with a spirit of toleration, sympathy, and respect for others outside their immediate circle of interest?
18. Does the teacher encourage the weighing of motives and actions with reference to their righteousness? Do you approve of this practice?
19. Does the teacher seek to have the students "be like" noble characters in history? What can you say for and against this practice?
20. Ought the teacher to strive consciously to use history to develop ethical ideas in pupils?
21. How does history exert a religious influence on its students?
22. Does history "inspire a love of truth" to any different degree than does any other subject of study?
23. Does the teacher seek to bring out the ?sthetic values of history? How does she do so?
24. Should appeal be made frequently to the emotional side of pupils' natures?
25. Is adequate opportunity given pupils to develop literary expression? How is this done?
26. Are you satisfied that a taste for historical reading is being developed in the pupils? What observations make you