Pupils should
acquire much familiarity with the history of the ancient oriental
nations, Judea, Greece, Rome, the states of modern Europe and America.
The purpose should be to give a general, and in the beginning a
relatively superficial, overview of the world's history for the
sake of perspective. The reading should be biographical, anecdotal,
thrilling dramas of human achievement, rich with human interest.
It should be at every stage of the work on the level with the
understanding and degree of maturity of the pupils, so that much
reading can be covered rapidly. Given the proper conditions--chiefly
an abundance of the proper books supplied in sets large enough for
classes--pupils can cover a large amount of ground, obtain a wealth
of historical experience, and acquire a great quantity of useful
information, the main outlines of which are remembered without much
difficulty. They can in this manner lay a broad historical foundation
for the study of the social topics that should begin by the seventh
grade and continue throughout the high school.
The textbooks of the present type can be employed as a part of this
preliminary training. Read in their entirety and read rapidly, they
give one that perspective which comes from a comprehensive view of the
entire field. But they are too brief, abstract, and barren to afford
valuable concrete historical experience.
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