There are from one hundred and eighty to two hundred recitation periods
of forty-five minutes each, minus the holidays, opening exercises,
athletic mass meetings, and other respites, in which to teach a thousand
years of ancient history, twenty centuries of English history, or the
story of our own people. The age of the student will be from thirteen to
eighteen. His judgment is immature; his knowledge of books, small; his
interest, far from zealous. He will have three other subjects to prepare
and his time is limited. Also, he is a citizen of the Republic and by
his vote will shortly influence, for good or ill, the destinies of the
nation.

The purpose of this monograph is to discuss the means by which the
teacher can engender in this student a genuine enthusiasm for the
subject, stimulate research and historical judgment, correlate history,
geography, literature, and the arts, cultivate proper ideals of
government, establish a habit of systematic note-taking, and possibly
prepare the student for college entrance examinations.




II

HOW TO BEGIN THE COURSE


Very obviously each moment of the child's time and preparation should be
wisely directed. Each recitation should perform its full measure of
usefulness, in testing, drilling, and teaching. There will be no time
for valueless note-taking, duplication of map-book work, ambiguous or