HISTORY IN GRAMMAR GRADES 289 



This is not difficult, for all of it can be found in the stories 

 of the period, in illustrations, and from knowing what the 

 men themselves did and how they accomplished their ends. 

 The work should always be more than pure biography, it 

 should be a picture of the time studied. 



In the latter half of the year there are given stories of 

 the Revolution, the Opening of the West, and the Civil War. 

 To the child Washington is the man most intimately asso- 

 ciated with the Revolution, and the war is grouped around 

 his heroic struggles. Daniel Boone is the hero of the period 

 of expansion that followed the establishment of peace, and 

 intensely interesting he is to the children. Abraham Lincoln 

 is the hero of the Civil War. Stories of this great Ameri- 

 can, heard by the pupils in the third grade, are renewed, and 

 to them are added many others showing the determined 

 effort of Lincoln that all human beings in our country should 

 be free. The war is not studied as a war ; it is a background 

 on which are sketched some of the great incidents in the 

 life and efforts of Lincoln. 



The children are now delighted to read for themselves, if 

 the way is only opened for them, and they will search 

 happily and persistently for reading on 

 topics in which they have been interested. 

 It is often surprising what mature books children will read 

 understandingly, if they have only been given enough of the 

 story to be able to follow its development through even 

 unknown words and new sentence forms. While books for 

 children are not to be decried, still much of the so-called 

 juvenile reading is so puerile as to be a positive injury to 

 young minds. As squirrel's teeth are kept sharp and clean 

 by gnawing hard substances, so children's minds are sharp- 



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