HISTORY IN GRAMMAR GRADES 313 



should leave no important period without also seeing that 

 these details are not the end for which we are studying, but 

 that they make it possible to see the real meaning of the life 

 of the nation, just as flying scraps of paper tell the direction 



of the wind. 



EIGHTH YEAR GRADE 



The administrative period, from the Revolution to the 

 present time, and the history of California form the subject 



matter for the history of the eighth grade. 

 Time ^, . . . , 



Material e lven 1S "" v mmut es a day 



throughout the year. Half of the period 

 is used by the pupils for preparation. According to the 

 state law no study out of school can be required by the 

 teacher, but many interested pupils read at the public library, 

 or take school books home with them for the evening, through 

 their own desire to know more about the periods studied. 



This part of the history of our country has many difficul- 

 ties for grammar grade pupils, for its development is along 



the lines of mature growth, it is the complex 

 Matter history of modern times, and care must be 



taken that it is not overwhelming to the chil- 

 dren. There are many topics that are important and inter- 

 esting without going into the vagaries of the currency, the 

 intricacies of the tariff, or the vacillations of political parties. 

 Such are the questions of transportation; the opening of 

 new roads ; the conditions of the negroes ; the attitude of the 

 North and the South toward the freedmen; immigration, 

 and the settlement of great stretches of our country through 

 the influx of foreigners ; the reasons for the development of 

 certain states, as California, because of its mines, grain pro- 

 duction, fruit raising, stock raising, climate ; Kansas, because 



