the past, but it all too often happens that current history is forgotten
in the recital of facts that are centuries old. Candidates for teachers'
certificates in their examinations in United States history show far
less knowledge about the great problems and events of the present day
than they do of colonial history. The student in English history in our
high schools to-day knows all about the Domesday Book, but almost
nothing of the recent history of England. Quite possibly the text has
nothing to say about it, and it is equally likely that the class may
fail to cover the text and miss the little that is actually given. No
opportunity should be missed to indicate the bearing of the past on
present-day conditions. Even if the events of the lesson exert no direct
influence on affairs to-day, their significance may be brought home to
the student by an illustration from current history. The account of the
Black Death gives excellent occasion for a brief discussion of modern
sanitation and the war on the White Plague. The efforts of Parliament to
fix wages can be illustrated by some of the minimum wage laws passed by
recent legislatures. John Ball's teachings suggest a brief discussion of
modern socialism, daily becoming more active in its influence. The
medieval trade guilds and modern labor unions; the monopolies of
Elizabeth's time and the anti-trust law of to-day; George the Third's
two hundred capital crimes and modern methods of penology; the jealousy
of Athens in guarding the privilege of citizenship and the facility with
which immigrants at present become American citizens are only a few
illustrations, indicating the ease with which the past and the present
may be correlated.


_He will be required to memorize a limited amount of matter verbatim_

In assigning a lesson it is sometimes desirable to require certain