Organization of the English History Field.
The organization and treatment of this field should be based on the idea of bringing out clearly the origin, growth and larger developments of English political, social and economic institutions. The field offers especial advantages for developmental study, as the history is well connected throughout, and can be easily organized into topics and problems. All that the teacher needs is a little insight into the fundamental factors and influences in English history, and this should be obtained from any well conducted general course in English history. The history of England should always be organized and treated as being the study of the growth of a great imperial nation out of various elements and through different policies. The idea of the growth of free, representative government (the power of the people, or democracy, in government) is the predominant note, but the broader viewpoint of the growth of national civilization as shown in policies, industry, art, language and letters is also desirable and important. Among the dangers to be avoided in teaching English history, and in teaching how to organize it, is the temptation to emphasize the minor political details relating to royalties, wars and so forth. The history of England is after all closely related to the history of Europe, and the two great questions of interest in her story are those of her internal development along national lines and of her external policy and growth along imperial lines. More attention than is now given could well be bestowed on the British empire, and it is a pleasure to find one text-book at least that attempts to do justice to this important phase of English history and government.[3]
Organization of the Field of American History and Government.
Probably all teachers of American history will admit that broadly stated the course in American history and government should be organized with special emphasis on the national period, and should represent an attempt to show how out of the diversity of the colonial period there finally emerged the spirit of federal union, and how American history largely centers around the erection of a sovereign federal state, in face of English opposition, and the maintenance of the union, in the face of internal dissensions, and finally, the growth and expansion of the United States as a world power. The European background, the native or American background, exploration, colonization and colonial development must all be touched on lightly. Then a careful study should be made of the steps leading up to union and to independence, though the military side of the revolutionary struggle is frequently over-emphasized, and the beginnings of national government as we know it to-day can be studied in connection with the formation of the constitution. Territorial expansion, foreign and civil wars, colonial expansion and problems of internal development can all be treated in relation with the central problem of successful federal government and in relation with the present. Interwoven frequently with American national history is the history of one’s own state, and teachers can frequently use local interests to make the story of some particular phase of national development more real and significant.