298 METHODS IN TEACHING 



formation of judgments based upon proofs, and systematic 

 arrangement of the knowledge gained ; historical knowledge. 



In order to like history a child must read easily and widely, 

 not narrowly and intensely on a short period of time where 

 he is expected to master all the details. To 

 Training study the men about whom he reads, he 



must discuss their motives and characters, 

 and he must compare them with one another. To acquire 

 mental training the material used must be systematized, and 

 the judgment must be exercised and developed. In all these 

 efforts at education the teacher must remember that sixth 

 grade training must be simple. Discussions and decisions 

 will be crude, but the fact of using powers means their 

 growth. The pupils are in the story age. They can read 

 many accounts that turn about the same center of knowledge 

 without tiring of the subject. Thus, by varying the stories 

 but keeping the same center of thought, material is accu- 

 mulated for discussions, comparisons, outlines; and broader 

 knowledge comes from the presentation of a thought or fact 

 in several different guises. 



For instance, the love of the Greeks for adventurous ex- 

 peditions comes out very clearly from reading the stories of 

 Jason, the Iliad, the Odyssey. To the pupil there is no repe- 

 tition of thought, but, if the discussions have been kept up, 

 and if the teacher is skillful in drawing out the character- 

 istics of the Greeks that led to these expeditions, at the end 

 of the reading the pupil will have a knowledge of the way 

 in which the Greeks during the period of colonization scat- 

 tered their life, customs, and seeds of awakening intelligence 

 all around the Black Sea, in Asia Minor, in Southern Italy 

 and the adjacent islands. It is a knowledge that is import- 



