A Guide to Methods and Observation in History | Page 5

attitudes.
(c) It gives appreciation of the civic and political institutions of
to-day--their origin, development, and purposes--and hence teaches the
rights and obligations that are inherent in citizenship.

(d) It inspires patriotism "through arousing noble emotions that revolve
about inherited responsibilities." ["A study of the times that tried men's
souls tends to form souls that are capable of enduring trial."--Hinsdale.]
(e) It reveals the slow evolutionary processes that operate in social life,
and hence tends to encourage one to put himself in harmony with the
laws of social evolution and to strive for social betterment while he at
the same time is patient with existing conditions.
(f) It breaks down provincialism through revealing the relations,
common traits, and interdependence of one community with another,
and one nation with all other nations.
3. Moral and Religious.
(a) It habituates to weighing motives and actions as regards their
righteousness.
(b) It implants ideals of personal character by disclosing the personal
qualities and moral accomplishments of men and women who have, in
large ways, affected history, and who have in consequence received
lasting honor and renown.
(c) It teaches us to see something of the intangible forces that override
personal preferences and hinder the direct application of principles
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. Æsthetic (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.