will always be a considerable
difference of opinion. It is much easier to state what notebook work
should not be than to outline precisely how it should be conducted.
Certainly it should not be overdone. It should not be an exercise
usurping time disproportionate to its value. It should not be required
primarily for exhibition purposes, although such notes as are kept
should be kept neatly and spelled correctly.
Students should be encouraged to keep their envelope of note paper
always at hand during recitation and while reading. The habit of jotting
down facts, opinions, statistics, comparisons, and contradictions while
they are being read is most desirable and worthy of cultivation. The
student should be taught the wisdom of keeping his notes in a neat,
legible, and easily available form. Shorthand methods should be
discouraged. With a little tactful direction early in the year, the student
may be led to form a most useful habit. The greater the proportion of
intelligent note-taking that is done without compulsion, the better. No
more notes should be required than the teacher can honestly look over,
correct, and grade. It is better to require no notes at all than to accept
careless, superficial inaccuracies as honest work. One curse of high
school history teaching is the tendency of young teachers trained in
college history classes to assign more work than the student can
honestly do or the teacher properly correct.
As has already been intimated, history notes should not be kept in a
book. The required notes should be kept on separate sheets of paper.
The topics should be clearly indicated at the top of each sheet. The
authorities used in arriving at the answer should always be given, with
the volume, chapter, and page. The notes on related topics should be
put into an envelope and properly labeled. After the recitation the
student can make any necessary corrections in his notes without
spoiling their appearance. He will simply substitute a new sheet for the
old. If the teacher discovers in his periodic examination of the notes
that some of the matter asked for has not been properly covered or that
errors have not been corrected, the notes needing revision can be
detained for use in a conference with the student, while the others are
returned. If at any time after completing his high school work the
student desires to use the data contained in his notes or to add to them
matter which he may later read, they are in available form. For
convenience and neatness, for present use, and future reference this
device is far superior to the formal notebook. It has the further
advantage of accustoming the student to the method of note-taking
which will be required of those who go to college.
It would save much valuable time, at present frequently wasted in
writing useless notes, if the teacher constantly squared his notebook
requirements with questions such as these:--
1. Is the notebook work as I am conducting it calculated to develop the
habit of critical reading?
2. Does the time spent in writing up notes justify itself by fixing in the
child's mind new and really relevant information not given in the text?
3. Is it teaching students to combine facts, opinions, and statistics, to
form conclusions really their own?
4. Is the amount of work required reasonable when it is remembered
that the child has three other subjects to prepare, that he is from thirteen
to eighteen years of age, and more or less unfamiliar with a library?
5. Am I able carefully and punctually to correct all the notes required?
Whatever the method the teacher thinks best to be used should be
explained early in the course and thereafter the student should be held
scrupulously responsible for such requirements as are made.
Instruction in the use of the library and indexes Having discussed with
the class the questions assigned on the day of enrollment and explained
the method of study recommended for their use, it will be well for the
teacher to devote some time to instruction in the use of the library. It is
possible that the older classes will require very little of this, but there
are few classes where an hour, at least, cannot well be spent in a
discussion of indexes, titles, and relative value of the works on various
subjects. This hour need not be the regular recitation period. A session
before or after school could be devoted to the purpose. The teacher's
instruction, however, will be greatly assisted if the students are asked to
prepare answers before coming to class to such questions as the
following:--
1. How much previous work have you done in the library?
2. Of what use do you think the library should be to you in the course
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