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INDIANA UNIVERSITY STUDIES 



IV. ADMINISTRATION OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 

 IN HISTORY 

 1. The Time Devoted to History 



Number of Recitations per Week in Each Grade. The number 

 of recitations per week given to history in each ^ade is one index 

 to the amount of time given to the subject. The tendency in the 

 first grade of the 116 systems reporting is to have three recitations 

 per week, tliis number gTadually increases until it reaches five in 

 grades Y, YI, YII, and YIII. The complete distribution is shown 

 in the table below: 







Frequency in Grade 









Number. 



















Total. 





1 



2 



3 



4 



5 



6 



7 



8 





Number of systems represented.. . 



116 



127 



147 



163 



200 



209 



222 



206 





One recitation per week 



22 



19 



17 



15 



11 



6 



1 



0 



91 



Two recitations per week 



34 



34 



28 



27 



26 



19 



8 



0 



176 



Three recitations per week 



29 



34 



46 



45 



32 



32 



13 



13 



244 



Four recitations per week 



5 



7 



5 



10 



12 



17 



14 



12 



82 



Five recitations per week 



26 



33 



51 



66 



119 



135 



186 



181 



797 



Median number of recitations. 



3 



3.3 



3.6 



3.9 



5 



5 



5 



5 





The table clearly shows the decrease in the number of systems 

 having one recitation a week as the eighth grade is approached. 

 The same decrease is also noticeable in systems having two and 

 three per week. A\Tien four recitations each week begin, the de- 

 crease has changed to an increase which gets greater until five per 

 week occur. One would scarcely have thought, before tabulating 

 the above material, that half of the elementary grades are devot- 

 ing five recitations per week to history. 



Length of the Recitation Period in Each Grade. The recita- 

 tion period varies from five to forty-five minutes in length in the 

 systems reporting, the former occurring six times, the latter twenty- 

 eight. A twenty-minute period seems to be the favorite, with a 

 thirty-minute as second choice. The order is as follows: twenty- 

 minutes, occurring 406 times ; tliirty-minute, 307 times ; twenty-five 

 minute, 278 times; and fifteen-minute, 206 times. No other period 

 comes near in length of time to any of the above, the ten-minute 

 being nearest Avith but fifty-two frequencies. 



Speaking generally, the length of the recitation period in grades 

 I and II is fifteen minutes; in III and lY, twenty minutes; in Y 



