=European History in Secondary Schools=, DANIEL C. KNOWLTON, Ph.D., Barringer High School, Newark, N. J.
=English History in Secondary Schools=, C. B. NEWTON, Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, N. J.
=Ancient History in Secondary Schools=, WILLIAM FAIRLEY, Ph.D., Commercial High School, Brooklyn, N. Y.
=History in the Grades=, ARMAND J. GERSON, Supervising Principal, Robert Morris Public School, Philadelphia, Pa.
Printed on another page of this number is a paper by Miss Briggs upon her experiences as an examiner and reader in history for the College Entrance Examination Board, in which figures are given to show that history papers are rated lower than any other of the major subjects, and that the average grade in history, instead of rising, is actually getting lower year by year. Miss Briggs expresses the hope that the low grades are due to the number of applicants who prepare by rapid tutoring or wholly by themselves for the history examinations; a practice, of course, almost impossible in the other major subjects. But while such cramming is partly responsible for the failure of history applicants, it cannot relieve the history teacher of blame. All who have had experience in the marking of history papers in entrance examinations know that much of the teaching of history is careless, indefinite, and without evident purpose or understanding. If our subject is not to lose caste altogether we must find a method which will give the student that which can be measured objectively, as well as furnish subjective satisfaction or culture.
Such a method will not add to the intricacy of history for the student, but it will require more efficient teachers of the subject, and it will prevent that serious evil of the high school teaching of history,--the assignment of history to any unattached instructor, whether he or she knows anything about history or no. History teaching in the college or the graduate school has, to a certain extent, found itself, and won the respect of its fellows; history teaching in the high school and preparatory school has not yet reached that point of self-development.
There has been much talk, and rightfully, about the content of secondary school history courses. The market has been filled with excellent text-books and admirable source books--indeed they are almost too good in that they have made text-book recitations easier and somewhat more interesting. There have been pages and volumes of reading references and map references and source references. Yet with all these aids to the better teaching of history there has not gone a proportionate ability to use them. Let us ask for a while, not what period of history shall we teach? but, how shall we teach any period of history?