The History Teacher’s Magazine
Volume I.Number 4.PHILADELPHIA, DECEMBER, 1909.$1.00 a year15 cents a copy
Volume I.Number 4.
PHILADELPHIA, DECEMBER, 1909.
$1.00 a year15 cents a copy
BY WALTER L. FLEMING, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY.
A well-constructed syllabus is a useful aid to the instructor and to the student of history in high school and sometimes in college classes. A good syllabus usually contains not only an outline of the essential topics in orderly sequence with numbered divisions and indentations to indicate the value of the topics and their relation one to another, but also definite and more or less complete references to the best reading on each important subject. A complete syllabus should contain also lists of additional topics for extra work or for advanced students, with suitable references to the proper reading necessary to develop this extra work. In syllabi designed for use in high schools and the lower classes of college, references to good historical maps and atlases are usually found, as well as suggestions for map work, lists of historical pictures and other illustrative material, suggestions to teachers and to students, and “thought questions” or “problems.”
Among the published syllabi designed for high school work are the following: “A History Syllabus for Secondary Schools” (New England History Teachers’ Association, published by D. C. Heath), arranged in four divisions—ancient history, medieval and modern history, England, and the United States—with full reference lists and estimates of the percentage value of each section of the course; “The History and Social Science Syllabus” of the New York State Education Department, a slight modification of the New England syllabus that omits the bibliographies; Leadbetter, “Outlines and Studies of Ancient, Medieval and Modern History” (Ginn & Co.), based on the texts of Myers, with good outlines, a few well-selected references, and very good “studies” or “thought questions.” Several publishers of history texts have issued outlines or manuals to accompany them. The best of these for school use are the “Teaching of American History,” etc., published by Appleton to accompany the Twentieth Century texts. The New York State Education Department has prepared numbers of outlines on special fields of history, all of which are helpful to teachers and some of which can be used to advantage with high school and college classes. Nearly all the history syllabi for schools follow the division of the subject into periods recommended by the Committee of Seven.
Several published outlines for use in college classes are worthy of note. Among them are: Shepherd’s “Syllabus of the Epochs of History,” used in the first year work at Columbia University; the two outlines used for the same purpose at Dartmouth College; Munro and Sellery’s “Syllabus of Medieval History,” and Ames’s “American Colonial History” (University of Pennsylvania); Sheldon’s “Teachers’ Manuals” (Heath); the Columbia University (New York) Extension Syllabi, especially those prepared by Professors Shepherd, Shotwell and Beard; and the University of Chicago Extension Syllabi, which are very useful for short periods. All of these outlines can be procured through the book dealers, while many others privately printed can also be obtained. For nearly every competent instructor in history in the colleges and universities has found that in some part of his work there is no proper guide, and to supply the lack has constructed a syllabus.
The general use in high schools of good syllabi such as the New York or the New England outlines with their useful suggestions as to essentials, proportions and methods tends to raise standards, to make uniform the quantity and quality of history work, and to cause the adoption of good methods of teaching.
The advocates of the syllabus have much more than this to say in favor of its use. They claim that it is a guide to study, to the use of a text, to the use of reference works, to the proper division of a subject; that it is a good basis for class discussion, recitation, and examination; and that it keeps topical work from producing confused results, etc. Whether the syllabus will do all this is doubtful, but that it is a valuable aid is certain. When no satisfactory text can be had, the only thing that an instructor can do—formal lectures to immature students being out of the question—is to construct a syllabus or to procure a good one made by some one else. This outline is necessary to give proportion, connection and organization to the course. By making his own syllabus an instructor can secure proper attention to the points that he thinks should be emphasized, and he has in his outline a definite plan of the work to be done, something that many of the texts do not offer.
With the syllabus constantly before him the student will see the subject in its proper proportions; he will not get lost in the mass of detail which must cumber even the best books, but with this guide to the essentials he will be able to collect information from his readings, from explanatory lectures, etc., and to organize it about the framework of the syllabus. Knowing what he is looking for, having a more definite aim than one working out an assignment of “the next fifteen pages,” he can get more satisfactory results.
Not only is it worth while to a young student to have the main topics logically arranged, and ordered in their proper relations, but the practice in the collection and organization of information gained from different authorities will tend to foster the habit of comparison, will cultivate the judgment even though slightly, and will assist the development of the critical faculty. The old system of using one text with “by heart” recitations, though it gave accurate information, did not do this.
With high school and elementary college classes the syllabus should be used in close connection with a text or texts, reference being made to other authorities for differing views, additional information, or wholly new material. No ordinary manuals cover all the parts of a field that a teacher believes should be treated; while the syllabus based on several texts, outlines a more comprehensive plan than any one text has ever done. The proportion observed in the syllabus may correct the text that is too diffuse, too overloaded with details, or too condensed.
For classes pursuing the study of history by the topical method a syllabus is a good thing to bind the work together, to give it connection and definite form. The syllabus is something more than a mere list of subjects; it aims to show relations, to bridge the space between one large topic and another. Too many topics should not be suggested by the syllabus; the fewer and larger the topics the freer the student is to arrange his information about each topic; while too minute analysis makes the work tedious and keeps a student from exercising originality in the arrangement of his material.
In my work in school and college I have found the syllabus useful not only withclasses using texts, but with more advanced classes having no prescribed texts. I prefer to make the outlines myself, but find that the published syllabi give valuable hints. In assigning class work, a certain number of topics are given to the class as a lesson. Each individual is required to work out a single topic for extra work. The students read the text and the recommended reference books on each topic, gather the information in note-books, and then are ready for recitation, discussion, or report in class. At least once a month I give to my classes a list of “problems” or “studies” similar to those found in Leadbetter’s “Outlines” and Botsford’s “Greece” and “Rome.” The working out of these aids causes the student to assimilate the information that he has gained and to see the subject in its different aspects; and also tends to prevent indifferent work with the syllabus.