Ontario Teachers' Manuals. Ontario. Department of Education

Information stage, and the Reflective stage. These stages are not exclusive, nor do they coincide with the first three Forms in the schools.

THE STORY STAGE

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This stage is suitable for children in the primary grades and is chiefly preparatory to the real study of history in the higher grades. The need for this stage lies in the fact that the child's "ideas are of the pictorial rather than of the abstract order"; yet his spontaneous interest in these things must be made to serve "as a stepping-stone to the acquired interests of civilized life." The definite objects at this stage are:

      (a) To create and foster a liking for historical study. It is impossible, in the public school life of a child, which is usually ended at the age of twelve to fourteen years, to accomplish all that has been indicated above concerning the aims of history teaching. The most that can be done is to lay the foundation and give the pupil a desire to continue his reading after his school days are over. Serious blame rests on the teacher whose methods of teaching history, instead of attracting the child to the subject, give him a distaste for it. If history is made real and living to children, it is usually not difficult to have them like it. (For suggestions, see p. 34.)

(b) To acquaint the pupils with some of the important historical persons. We wish to take advantage of the fact that "the primitive form of attention which is captured at once by objects that strike the senses is giving place in some degree to appreciative attention, which is yielded to things that connect themselves with what we already know, and which implies ability to adopt the reflective attitude towards a proposed problem."[A] Now children are more interested in people than in institutions or events; and, if we can give them a knowledge of some of the striking incidents in the lives of important characters in history, we may expect them to be more interested in the study of history at a later period, because they will frequently meet with these familiar names. The emphasis at this stage is therefore on biography.

      (c) To help the development of the "historical sense." The "historical sense" includes the notion of time, the notion of a social unit and, according to some, the notion of cause and effect. The notion of time implies the power "to represent the past as if it were present"—that is, the power to enter into the thoughts and feelings of people of the past as if we were living amongst them. This notion of time comes at different ages; to some early, to others very late. It came to Professor Shaler at the age of about eight or nine years, as the direct result of vivid story-telling:

      Of all the folk who were about me, the survivors of the Indian wars were the most interesting. There were several of these old clapper-clawed fellows still living, with their more or less apocryphal tales of adventures they had heard of or shared. There was current a tradition—I have seen it in print—that there had been a fight between the Indians and whites where the government barracks stood, and that two wounded whites had been left upon the ground, where they were not found by the savages. One of these had both arms broken, the other was similarly disabled as to his legs. It was told that they managed to subsist by combining their limited resources. The man with sound legs drove game up within range of the other cripple's gun, and as the turkeys or rabbits fell, he kicked them within reach of his hands, and in like manner provided him with sticks for their fire. This legend, much elaborated in the telling, gave me, I believe at about my eighth year, my first sense of a historic past, and it led to much in the way of fanciful invention of like tales. (N.F. Shaler: Autobiography, Chap. I.)

      The best means at the teacher's command to assist its coming is to tell good stories from history with all the skill he has; the stories need not be told in chronological order. The notion of time implies also in the older pupils the power to place events in chronological order.

      The notion of a social unit is also of slow growth and must spring from the child's conception of the social units he belongs to—the home, the school, the community.

      

      The notion of cause and effect does not belong so wholly to the study of history as the notions of time and of the social unit; it is surprising, however, how soon it makes its appearance in the child's conceptions of history, in his desire to know the "why" of things. (See Barnes' Studies in Historical Method.)

THE INFORMATION STAGE

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      There are several questions that children soon come to ask: "When?" and "Where?" "What?" and "Who?" This stage may be said to begin in earnest with the Second Form, and it continues through the whole course. One of the essential elements in history study is to have a knowledge of the important facts of history, without which there can be no inferences of value for present use. The all-important point in this teaching of facts is to keep the lessons interesting and not allow them to become mere lifeless memorizing of isolated happenings; for a fact is of value only when related to other facts. (See pp. 36, 38.)

THE REFLECTIVE STAGE

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      This stage naturally follows the Information stage, as one must acquire facts before reflecting on them in order to draw inferences. But reflection of a simple kind may begin as soon as any facts are given that will show the relations of cause and effect. The question for the pupil here is "Why?" just as in the preceding stage the questions were "When?" and "Where?" "What?" and "Who?" Information and reflection may therefore be combined—with due regard to the pupil's capacity.

PRACTICAL DIFFICULTIES

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      We may speak of two difficulties. The first concerns the enormous amount of historical material that exists. It is increased still more by the intermingling of legend with history and by the partial narratives of prejudiced writers. The legendary part may be taken up in the Story stage; and the evils of one-sided accounts are often balanced by the greater vigour and interest of the narrative, as in Macaulay's writings. The difficulty connected with the great amount of material can be solved by the selection (already largely made by the text-books) of the more important parts, that is, those facts of history that have the greatest influence on after times—"the points of vital growth and large connection" without which subsequent history cannot be properly understood.

      The second difficulty has to do with deciding where to begin the teaching of history. There are two principles of teaching that will help to solve this difficulty: (1) The child learns by relating everything new to his present fund of experiences; (2) A child's notions grow more complex as his knowledge increases. To apply these, we must know the child's experiences and his present notions. We cannot assume that the present conditions of social life are known to the child through his experiences. Our social life is also too complex to be understood by him yet; he can understand an individual hero better than he can the complex idea of a nation. How many children would be able to begin a study of history by having, as one writer suggests, "a short series of lessons … to make some simple and fundamental historical ideas intelligible—a state, a nation, a dynasty, a monarch, a parliament, legislation, the administration of justice, taxes, civil and foreign war!" These are ideas far beyond the comprehension of the beginner. We must be guided, not by "what happens to be near the child in time and place, but by what lies near his interests." As Professor Bourne says: "it may be that mediæval man, because his characteristics belong to a simple type, is closer to the experience of a child than many a later hero." With older children it is more likely to be true that the life of history lies "in