English history is recommended by the teachers for its usual place in the third year because of its position in chronological sequence. Frequent answers are: "it should follow mediaeval and precede American history," and "it should precede American history." Correlation with English literature is also given as a reason for its place here. American history, also, is very commonly recommended for its place in the fourth year by its position in chronological sequence: "it should follow mediaeval and modern and English history," "culmination of all previous history," etc. However, another very common recommendation appears among the answers: the need of civic training for the student soon to be graduated. Other answers refer to the maturity needed for its proper comprehension, the desirability of separating it from the American history of the elementary school, its required place in high-school normal-training courses, and the opportunity offered of correlating it with the American literature appearing in this year. TIME ELEMENT Weeks in the courses.-With 8, 3, and 3 exceptions, respectively, courses in ancient, mediaeval and modern, and English history are a full year of not less than 36 weeks in length. The exceptions are: ancient history: 17 weeks, I school; 18 weeks, 2 schools; "24-36 weeks," I school; 33 weeks, I school; 34 weeks, 3 schools; mediaeval and modern history: 18 weeks, 2 schools; 34 weeks, I school; English history: 18 weeks, 3 schools. It is probable that teachers reporting 33 and 34 weeks have subtracted time set apart for semester or other examinations. Of the 104 schools from which responses on American history were received, 19 report half-year courses of 18-20 weeks in length, 79 report a full-year course of 36 or more weeks, and I school each reports courses of 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, and 33 weeks. This marked diversity of practice will be partially explained later under the head of "Organization of the Course in American History." It may be said in passing that the diversity is more seeming than real and grows out of variation between two extremes of practice one of presenting American history and government as separate courses, and the other of presenting them as coherent constituents of a single course. Periods per week.-The number of periods per week devoted to courses in history is almost always five. The exceptions are: in ancient history, 3 schools report four periods and 1 reports seven periods; in mediaeval and modern history, I school reports four periods; in English history, I reports four periods; and in American history, 2 report four periods and 1 reports seven periods. Length of periods.—The length of periods for classes in history is shown in Table LX. Almost no schools provide periods less than TABLE LX NUMBER OF SCHOOLS REPORTING VARIOUS LENGTHS OF CLASS PERIODS 40 minutes in length, while all but a very few schools provide periods from 40 to 45 minutes in length. It is deserving of notice that at least 4 schools provide time for supervised study, 3 of them during a 30-minute, and the fourth during a 40-minute, period. III. ORGANIZATION OF THE COURSE IN AMERICAN HISTORY The only course in history concerning whose organization and content a direct question was put was American history. The question read: "If American history is taught as a part of a course in American history and government, what fractional part of the course is devoted to each?" Twenty-eight teachers report definitely that they do not make government a part of the course in American history. Of these 28, 19 are those specified under "Weeks in the Courses" (on p. 96) as reporting a half-year in the subject. In all but 2 of these 19 cases the half-year course in American history is followed by a separate half-year in government or civics. The remaining 9 of this group of 28 may be understood to exclude special and distinct recognition of work in government from their courses in American history. The remaining 72 who answer this question' signify that their courses are made up in some part of work in government. The fractional part devoted to the two aspects of the courses may be seen in Table LXI. Thirty-one of the 36 who are tabulated as devoting one-half to three-fifths of the total time to history, or 43 per cent of the 72 schools here concerned, divide the time equally TABLE LXI PROPORTIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF TIME DEVOTED TO HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT IN COURSES IN AMERICAN between history and government, whereas all the remaining 41 schools devote from somewhat more than one-half to five-sixths of the total time to history and one-sixth to somewhat less than onehalf the time to government. The facts appearing here may be summarized as follows: courses in American history range between two extremes of practice, one typified by such schools as constitute them in no special part of Two of the 104 teachers did not answer this question and the answers of 2 others were indefinite. government, and the other by those that divide the time equally between history and government. The schools approximating the latter extreme follow either the practice of making the work in history and government coherent parts of a single course or that of separating the work into two distinct courses, one of which is American history and the other government or civics. IV. METHODS HOW TEXTBOOKS ARE USED Four modes of using the textbooks were listed in the questionnaire, and the teachers were asked to signify which of these modes they were following. These modes were listed in the order of decreasing dependence upon the text and were as follows: (1) "as the main body of the course with little or no collateral reading,' (2) "as basis of assignments to be supplemented by required TABLE LXII NUMBER OF TEACHERS OF HISTORY FOLLOWING THE VARIOUS METHODS OF USING THE TEXTBOOK LISTED IN THE QUESTIONNAIRE collateral readings," (3) "as an outline or syllabus in connection with collateral readings," and (4) "on the same basis as other readings of the course." The facts appearing in compilation of the responses are set forth in Table LXII, which shows the numbers of teachers reporting the various uses listed. In order better to bring out the significance of these facts, they have been computed in percentages and reproduced in Table LXIII. On account of the relatively small number of responses to the inquiry in English history, too much importance should not be attributed to the figures for that subject. Mode (2) is most commonly used in all courses. It appears, however, that there is a somewhat greater tendency to follow mode (1) in ancient history than in subsequent courses. TABLE LXIII PERCENTAGES OF TEACHERS OF HISTORY FOLLOWING THE VARIOUS METHODS OF USING THE TEXTBOOK LISTED IN THE QUESTIONNAIRE Corresponding to this is the less apparent tendency to follow mode (2) in mediaeval and modern history and in American history. The percentages using modes (3) and (4) in all courses are notably small. In general, it may be said that, although there is some tendency in the later courses to place less dependence on the textbook, this tendency is not as marked as one could be led to expect in view of the greater maturity of the student. COLLATERAL READING Amount of collateral reading.—In order to make readily comparable the amounts of required collateral reading as reported by the teachers, they were reduced to the uniform basis of the number of pages per semester. The resulting computations appear in Table LXIV. It will be seen that very few teachers report definitely that they require no collateral reading. Perhaps we are justified in adding to these few those 18 teachers of ancient history, 9 of mediaeval and modern history, 3 of English history, and 18 of American history who fail to answer the question. The table indicates that the amounts of reading required vary between wide extremes and that there are no marked modal practices. The |