of history teachers were formed: The New England Association; the North Central Association; that of Nebraska; that of California; that of Indiana; and that of the Middle States and Maryland. Through their co-operative efforts a consistent course in history has been planned for secondary schools and widely adopted, and a beginning made in the modification of elementary

courses.

A study made by Professor Monroe, of Columbia University, under the auspices of the Association of the Middle States and Maryland, embracing the elementary curricula of fifty cities, selected from various parts of the United States, discloses the fact that there is great discrepancy as to the grades in which history is taught, the time allotment for the subject, and the organization of material. There was absolutely no agreement on the list of topics and the order of their appearance in the grades. The condition was found to be even more chaotic in rural schools. The general result of the investigation was to demonstrate that there is only one subject in the elementary school which possesses a less definite organization-and that is nature-study. In a similar way, this and other investigations reveal no uniformity in the conception of the purpose of history teaching.

Prompted by the obvious needs of the situation, the American Historical Association decided two years ago to appoint a committee of eight of its members, each of whom was at the same time a member of one of the local associations and familiar with its work, to prepare a course which it is hoped will be generally acceptable. The committee with Professor J. A. James, of Northwestern University as chairman, includes two representatives from normal schools, Miss Hill, of Lowell, and Professor Thurston, of Chicago; two university teachers of history, the chairman and Professor Bourne, of Cleveland; a head of a well-known private school, who is also a professor of education, Dr. Julius Sachs, of Teachers' College; and three superintendents of city schools— members of this Department-Messrs. Gordy, of Springfield; Brooks, of Greensboro; and Van Sickle, of Baltimore.

It has been the aim of the Historical Association to have its committee thoroughly representative, not only by reason of the varied educational interests of its members, but also by reason of their geographical distribution-New England, the Middle States, the South, and the Middle West are all represented.

It is not a committee predominantly representative of university interests. The chairman has held responsible positions both in elementary and secondary schools, and he has children now attending the elementary schools. The same may be said of Professor Bourne. Furthermore, the one is now devoting himself to American history, the other to European-for our purpose an ideal combination of interests.

Professor Thurston, formerly of the Chicago Normal School, now chief probation officer of the Juvenile Court, is pre-eminently qualified to deal with the correlation of history and civics. Miss Hill, of Lowell, and Dr. Sachs, of

New York, are constantly studying elementary-school problems. The three members of the Department of Superintendence who are members of the committee are continually alive, as in fact, are all the others, to the questions as to whether proposed plans will work well in practice under ordinary school conditions. We have all been in frequent consultation with teachers of the various grades and have had the benefit of their views. We believe the course proposed is a thoroughly practical one.

The following topics have been considered by subcommittees and reported on at regular meetings of the whole committee: (1) suggestions for a course of study for the first four grades; (2) suggestions for a course of study for the last four grades; (3) European background; (4) elementary history in European schools; (5) relation of history to geography, literature, and art; (6) suggestive methods, textbooks, and supplementary material; (7) civics in elementary schools; (8) what preparation for teaching history should be expected of the teacher in the grades; (9) what has thus far been accomplished in the formation of a course of study in history for the elementary schools?

The task of the committee is in many respects a more difficult and delicate one than that of forming a course for secondary schools. We have in a certain sense a more limited field to traverse. The youth and the immaturity of our pupils narrow our scope; but we must develop in our young pupils the capacity to benefit by the upper courses of instruction or by opportunities for study outside of the schoolrooms. We must therefore be careful not to arouse distaste or engender indifference, either by bad selection of subject-matter or by bad methods of presentation. Since history must be considered one of the most valuable cultural contributions to the efficiency of each new generation, the first steps are quite as important as the work of the university.

The general conclusions of the committee have been stated by the chairman as follows:

"It is believed that a leading aim in history teaching is to help the child to appreciate what his fellows are doing, and to help him to intelligent voluntary action in agreement or disagreement with them. To accomplish these results there must be continuous attention in each of the grades to contemporary problems suitable to his intelligence, and also attention to events in the past that he can understand. The following fields of human activity must furnish these events: political, industrial, social, religious. And no one of them should exclude the others. In the first four grades, while the teaching must be incidental, it will serve to give a correct attitude toward later history.

The teaching of history must be closely related to instruction in other subjects of the elementary program. This feature has been emphasized by the committee, and the dependence of history teaching upon geography, literature, and art, is given due recognition. History and civics also should be presented as allied subjects, emphasis being placed now on the history, and now on present civics.

The committee believes that the subject-matter for a course in the elemen

tary schools should be selected from American history. But this is not to be interpreted in a restricted sense. The pupil must be led to understand that American civilization and institutions have their beginnings under European surroundings, and that the problems of our national life, even to the close of the first quarter of the nineteenth century, were in a large measure closely connected with European problems."

The committee has under consideration for fourth and fifth grades a series of well-selected American biographies. In these grades there is no attempt to do more than give vivid pictures of men and their times, but the pictures or stories are arranged in sequence, so that the children may unconsciously gain a feeling of the close connection of each story with those preceding and those following. Pupils in these early grades are not prepared to take up causes and effects in any logical way.

The considerations which guide in the presentation of the material for the sixth grade are stated in the report as follows: "First, a desire to emphasize geographical facts, not alone those which form a part of the history of the discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but also the simpler incidents of previous geographical discoveries. Second, the desire to put the facts of emigration to America in connection with earlier movements of peoples. Third, the effort to show in a very simple way the civilizations which form the heritage of those who were to go to America; that is, to explain what America started with. Lastly, to associate the three or four peoples of Europe which were to have a share in American civilization with enough of their characteristic incidents to give the child some feeling for the names, England, France, Spain, and Holland. The period of the discoveries should also be included in the work of this grade.

In the seventh grade should be considered the exploration and settlement of North America and growth of the colonies, with accompanying European background, through the period of the Revolution. To the eighth grade would be assigned the formation and inauguration of the new government; the industrial and political development of the United States; westward expansion; and the growth of rival European nations.

The committee is further agreed that American history should be treated in carefully delimited stages, each period as fully presented at a given point in the curriculum as the maturity of the pupils will permit. The plan of the entire course is based on the proposition that the history teaching in the elementary schools shall be focused around American history, but that American history shall be regarded as distinctly related to and developed out of the history of the surrounding world; and that if we would maintain interest throughout the course we must avoid the recurrence in successive years of the same subject-matter.

The method that should prevail is the method that characterizes the good story teller. Our history teaching in the past has failed largely because it has not been picturesque enough. There has been so much repetition in

successive years that the charm of novelty was absent. Interest has been forestalled. The committee has steadily kept in mind the demands of the hour, the capacity of the teachers as they are now. The grouping of the work is so flexible that, while it affords scope for the most talented teacher, yet the teacher of lesser attainments, of restricted information, can make it the basis of a measurably satisfactory presentation; for, except in portions of the outline, where the ground covered is quite familiar, the suggestions and helps are abundant, and the syllabi are worked out in considerable detail. This is notably true of the outline for the sixth grade, where this course differs most from former ones; where, in order to understand the peoples who followed Columbus, Cabot, and Cartier across the Atlantic, we take up those characteristics and incidents in European history that are essential to this purpose. The committee believe that too much emphasis has been laid upon the Atlantic as a natural boundary, not merely of the American continent, but also of the history of America, and in presenting a course embodying this view they feel bound to give the teacher all the assistance that a detailed syllabus can afford. This makes the sixth-grade outline seem at first glance more formidable than it really is."

On the point as to whether so much help is needed, a speaker at the Providence meeting, where our report was presented in December, made the following comment: "The grade teachers need and desire just such pedagogical 'apparatus' as they find in our newer textbooks, and just such detailed syllabi as this. The day has not yet come when the majority of those who have to teach history in the grades can be trained specialists in that work. From time to time they have heard discourses, and read treatises on the principles and methods of teaching this subject, but these are comparatively meaningless to them unless supplemented by lists of topics with references and specific suggestions like those included in this report."

It is the belief of the committee that if this course, in its vital features, meets the views of the superintendents and teachers, there will come into being more than one series of history texts-some simpler, some more detailed— that will carry into practice the points of view it embodies. We are dependent in this country, if we would gradually emerge from the hopeless diversity that characterizes our history teaching, upon concentrated efforts like the present

one.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS OF THE ELEMENTARY

TEACHER

ASHLEY VAN STORM, SUPERINTENDENT CITY SCHOOLS, IOWA CITY, IA.

The writer approaches this topic with some trepidation. It may not be true that "there is nothing new under the sun," yet it certainly seems that everything has been said upon the qualifications of the teacher. Everyone from the writer on pedagogy to the crossroads orator has for years expressed him

self upon the qualifications that should distinguish the teacher from other and supposedly more common clay. I fear I cannot add anything to the mountain of material heaped high long years ago, and thrashed annually or oftener ever since, regarding the qualifications of the ideal teacher.

But our worthy president has added to the topic some modifying terms which may create lines of cleavage and bring great good from the discussion. I do not hope to exhaust the subject nor to add to your stock of knowledge, but shall be more than rewarded if I may succeed in setting forth the salient points in a manner that shall provoke full and free expression of opinion on the part of those present. The modifying terms which add zest to the topic are "minimum" qualifications and "elementary" teacher.

What shall be the standard by means of which we measure the minimum qualifications of this elementary teacher? Shall it be that of the rural or the more recently settled portions of our country, the slum districts of our large cities, the aristocratic portions of these same cities, the villages of our middle states, the schools of the mountain people of some portions of our land, the rural colored schools, the Indian schools, or some other of the multitudinous phases of elementary education presented by our widespread and varying population?

Again, from whose point of view shall we examine this problem? If we were a legislative body seeking to establish legal requirements for teachers it would be our duty to make an exhaustive inquiry into the qualifications established by law in the various states, to discuss fully the likenesses and differences, the advantages and disadvantages, of all the various provisions, and to suggest a body of laws on the subject fit to be enacted for the government which we represent. But we represent the entire United States, and wisely or unwisely education has not yet been brought to any extent under federal control. However wise and beneficial federal control of education might be in some regards, there are many reasons why its advent would not be hailed as an unqualified blessing. It is very certain that no minimum requirements for certification of teachers could be established that would be wise or just as a uniform standard for our entire domain. Even if such legislation were wise, we are not legislators. More than that we represent a profession the members of which exert, proverbially, far less influence with those who do legislate than any other class of people who hold so important a position in the machinery of civilization.

If we were a board of equalization seeking to determine the qualifications to be demanded of teachers in the light of the cash recompense made for the services rendered, we could quickly formulate our report and adjourn. It would run something like this:

Maximum qualifications which the public has a right to demand of the elementary teacher based upon the cash return which said public gives for the services rendered as shown by the report of the Committee of the National Educational Association on Salaries, Tenure, and Pensions of Public School