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INDIANA UNIVERSITY STUDIES 



few great historical facts. The myths, stories, and legends furnish 

 material to accomplish the first result; primitive, Indian, and 

 pioneer life gives material for the second purpose ; while the Avork 

 on biographies, anniversaries and the like furnishes certain facts 

 on which later history may be based. The above purposes, which 

 seem to be at the bottom of primary history work, are certainly 

 worth special consideration by teachers and supervisors of these 

 grades. If these aims are sound, there is need of much work tend- 

 ing toward uniformity of means. There might be a more general 

 agreement on the material best adapted to give the child the proper 

 historical perspective, on the best types with which to acquaint the 

 primary children, and on the great historical facts that should be 

 m.astered now for all time. These are some of the lines along which 

 one may expect development of the history course in the future. 



Fourth Grade. In this grade material was tabulated for 244 

 systems. Out of 252 replies, all but eight state that history is 

 included in the fourth grade course. It is interesting to note the 

 general uniformity that has begun to appear in this grade. The 

 prevalence of Roman history in some form or other stands out very 

 strikingly, appearing in 125 of the systems. Most of the systems 

 basing the fourth grade work on Old World history are found in 

 Indiana. The sixty-five cases gi^^ng American history in this grade 

 are systems, for the most part, outside of Indiana. All the courses 

 reported for this grade are sho^^Ti in the foUomng tabulation. The 

 report is given in this form to show in a definite manner just what 

 phases of the general fields are included in the history work of the 

 fourth grade. 



Topics and Fields Included Frequency 

 Material relating to American History — 



Bass's 'Stories of Pioneer Life' 11 



Stories of great Americans 9 



Local history stories 11 



Early explorers : Columbus and the Norsemen 4 



American history 11 



Simple history stories, chiefly American 4 



American life and adventure 6 



Shaw's 'Discovery and Exploration' 11 



Stories of Colonial life 3 



State history 4 



Pratt's 'American History for American Children', Books I and II. . 2 



Biography — mostly American 7 



Stories in connection with Thanksgiving, Decoration day, Labor 



day, Lincoln's and Washington's birthday 5 



