THE TEACHING OF HISTORY IN PREPARATORY SCHOOLS.

The Preparatory Schools of this country make the study of history a necessary part of their curriculum. It would be strange if it were not so. Almost all who have taught history to boys and girls agree in estimating its relative value very highly. It is not only that a boy ought to be acquainted with the facts of the history of his own country and to know something of the lives and doings of her great men, his own fellow-countrymen, and of the way in which the "ordered freedom" was attained which he and his enjoy. A boy may even add to his knowledge of English history a fair acquaintance with the history of Greece and Rome or with the outlines of European history; and yet we have not reached the final reasons which make the study of history in its various developments so invaluable to boys and girls of all ages. It is much the same with History as with Classics. The actual knowledge obtained in the study is invaluable to some, useful to many, useless to none; but the incidental benefits which result to the boy or girl student in the process of learning are invaluable to all. It strengthens memory, the best of servants. It develops and expands intelligence to a remarkable degree, which is a key to unlock the treasuries of knowledge. It arouses and stimulates imagination, which is the handmaid of student and literary man and statesman and scientist, and the avenue to the purest delights of life. It awakens enthusiasın, the salt of character. These are no mere fancies, but sober truth, attested by evidence; and, if so, it is scarcely wonderful that most schoolmasters value the study of history in their schools and give it as large a proportion of time as present circumstances permit. The wonder is that history is not valued more highly and more systematically taught than is actually the case.

It is the object of this paper (I.) to state in concise form what the Preparatory Schools are actually doing at the present time for the teaching of history; and (11.) to consider the whole subject of historical teaching in Secondary Schools, with special reference to the question whether any and, if so, what improvements may fairly be suggested in the methods adopted by preparatory schoolmasters.

(I.)

I propose in the first place, to set forth in detail the actual work being now done in the department of History by a

typical section, more than 120 in number, of the Preparatory Schools. The subject will fall naturally into a statement of time given to History in the school-week, of the subjects and methods adopted in teaching it and of possible means of improving them, and of the experience which teachers have gained as to its relative usefulness.*

The time spent on historical teaching varies but little in the different schools. Only two schools devote less than an hour to it in the week. Eight schools give three hours. One finds time -happy school-to assign no less than from four to six hours to the subject. But the vast majority find it impossible to give more than two hours at the outside, and perhaps it would be nearer the mark to say that "from one hour to two" is the time usually allotted to history in our Preparatory Schools. For the most part the work is done "in class," less than half of the schools under consideration sparing any time for "preparation." Not that this average of an hour and a-half is any gauge of the estimation in which the subject is held; for a large number of teachers, while speaking with remarkable conviction of its value, complain that their hands are tied in the matter, and that they cannot give as much attention to it as they think it deserves for this very significant reason-because it does not pay in subsequent examinations. Many would give more time if they

could.

In all schools without exception English history is very properly the starting point; more than seventy schools add a certain amount of Greek and Roman history for their older boys.

In the majority of schools a text-book (usually Gardiner's Outline of English History) forms the basis of instruction supplemented by the use of wall maps and blackboard, sometimes by lantern slides, relief maps, and models, in one case even by rubbings of brasses. Whatever may be thought of text-books

* With a view to arriving at a clear idea of the nature of this work, a series of questions was addressed to each headmaster, the answers to which have been analysed and tabulated. These questions were seven in number, directed to finding out-(a) what was the time allowed for history, both in preparation and in form; (b) what was the proportion of marks allowed; (c) whether English history only was taught, or Greek and Roman also ; (d) what was the method of teaching, whether by text-book or viva voce, and in either case what aids to such teaching were in common use; (e) whether boys were allowed or required to take notes; (f) whether it was the practice to deal with large periods or short; and (9) what was the experience of each headmaster as to the utility of history, as an item in the school curriculum, in strengthening memory and quickening intelligence. Each headmaster was further invited to give information as to any special method employed in his school, and to state his views regarding the subject in general, with special reference to any improvements that might be possible in the methods of teaching it, whether immediately or in the future. The answers received to these questions have in the main been exact, thorough, and thoughtful-in some cases they were more than this-and it has consequently been possible to arrive at a very definite conclusion as to what is being actually done in our schools. And one satisfactory conviction, at any rate, forces itself on one's mind, after weighing the purport of the evidence, viz., that, whatever defects there may be in the system of secondary education as far as historical teaching goes, the fault does not lie at the door of the Preparatory Schools.