742 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION I-. 



3. History as a Subject of School Study. By J. E. Morris, D.Litt. 



There is a somewhat urgent need that schoolmasters and schoolmistresses 

 should be freely consulted, because they know the capabilities of the youthful 

 mind, immature and impressionable as it is, better than university authorities. 

 Those who know the pupils in the claiss-room should have a voice in the choice 

 of subjects rather than those who only see the answers written in examinations. 

 The former resent, perhaps too keenly, the methods and the criticisms of 

 examiners ; the latter find fault, perhaps too freely, with the teachers. The 

 friction, such as it is, can be lessened. 



Firstly, it is necessary to distinguish between the really promising, the 

 average, and the dull boys. 



The promising boys, possibly candidates for scholarships, need, and usually 

 find, scope; the chief danger, however, is that too often they are expected to 

 limit themselves to political history, and are judged by literary capacity, whereas 

 enthusiasm in some special brancii, e.g., archjeology or social developments, 

 may be a sign of greater promise than mere literary expression. One hears 

 that an attempt is being made to bring classical and modern languages more 

 definitely into the history scholarship examination ; in theory this is excellent, 

 for an understanding of Thucydides or Cicero as an original authority, or an 

 appreciation of eonie problem of the Eevolutionary era expressed in a free 

 French composition, would at once mark out a boy as a possible scholar; but in 

 practice it is much to be feared that the linguistic side would be made too 

 prominent. 



But it is for the average boys that the most careful legislation is required. 

 They ought not to be harassed by too many examinations and too many sub- 

 jects; and in general they ought to be taught as much as possible by one man, 

 the form-master, for he only can properly judge where to put on special pressure, 

 and where to relax, as examination time draws near. Where, however, the 

 form-master is not sympathetic and the specialist must be called in, it is impera- 

 tive to combine two or three consecutive classes under one man. The extreme 

 case of an average boy presenting eight subjects and taught by eight men, each 

 demanding the lion's share of the time, is either pitiable or farcical, and the 

 result is either overwork or a clever laziness which plays off the teachers against 

 each other. In most cases history suffers, and is either crowded out or per- 

 functorily taught ; worse still, the right sort of history is not always put on the 

 syllabus, but that which can be most easily crammed. Examinations of the 

 ' School Certificate ' and ' Matriculation ' type are meant ; hardly ever are the 

 average boy's one or two strong points allowed to come into play, and especially 

 is this the case in history. At the present crisis it is opportune to insist that 

 his school studies should not be confined to England and to events before 1837; 

 he both likes and should be encouraged to study European problems, even if ho 

 finds it hard to be accurate. 



The average boy suffers badly because of the dullard; often, of course, the 

 dullard in one subject is the brilliant scholar in another, and outsiders in reading 

 reports forget that the strong criticisms of examiners do not refer to the same 

 boys in all subjects. Teaching to the bottom boys of a class to force them 

 through an examination is utterly unfair to the many average and few brilliant 

 boys. 



Secondly, the rigid division of subjects is quite wrong. Geography and 

 English ought not to be marked off from History. An ideal paper would contain 

 absolutely elementary questions in all three, the standard being fixed by syllabus, 

 and 20 per cent, of marks allotted ; then a large number of alternative questions 

 should be put, being worded so as to allow the writer to show how wide his 

 reading is in political, social, geographical, and general subjects. As matters 

 are now, one can offer no suggestions except on the lines of examination tests. 



