CHAPTER XIV 



INTRODUCTORY WORDS. HISTORY IN THE PRIMARY 



GRADES 



Tie greatest teacher of mankind is man. History is the 

 record of men and their achievements. The lessons that 

 are set forth by history pertain to every field of life and 

 labor. Success and failure, causes and results, are written 

 large on every page. History is a teacher, silent but elo- 

 quent. It tells impressively of the need of character. 

 Through history the far-reaching laws of existence, the 

 causes and results of events in the life of an individual or of 

 a nation, may be interpreted by students. Even children 

 may read their signs, and who can say how lasting will be 

 the effects upon their own lives? The personality of an 

 individual and the importance of an event should be the 

 basis of many a discussion in the history class. 



The most important results can not be obtained if the 

 pupils read principally about our own country. Modern 

 history is too complex to form the best grazing ground for 

 young minds. Interest in its events and some knowledge of 

 its needs and development, we must have, but its problems 

 are not the best ones for the young student to attack. More- 

 over, American life is an outgrowth from the older social 

 and political bodies of Europe, whose conditions still con- 

 tinue to influence us. In the less complex life of older 

 countries, of more primitive times, the unerring law of 

 cause and effect can be traced with greater ease than in the 



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