I

SOME PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS


_Assumptions as to the teacher of history_

This monograph will make no attempt to analyze the personality of the
ideal teacher. It is assumed that the teacher of history has an adequate
preparation to teach his subject, that he is in good health, and that
his usefulness is unimpaired by discontent with his work or cynicism
about the world. It is presupposed that he understands the wisdom of
correlating in his instruction the geography, social progress, and
economic development of the people which his class are studying. He is
aware that the pupil should experience something more than a
kaleidoscopic view of isolated facts. He recognizes the folly of
requiring four years of high school English for the purpose of
cultivating clear, fluent, and accurate expression, only to relax the
effort when the student comes into the history class. He knows that the
precision, logic, and habit of definite thinking exacted by the pursuit
of the scientific subjects should not be laid aside when the student
attempts to trace the rise of nations. Let us go so far as to assume a
teacher who is both pedagogical and practical; scholarly without being
musty; imbued with a love for his subject and yet familiar with actual
human experience.


_Actual conditions confronted by the teacher_