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A Monthly Magazine,

DEVOTED TO

THE SCIENCE, ART, PHILOSOPHY AND
LITERATURE OF EDUCATION.

FRANK H. KASSON and FRANK PALMER

EDITORS.

VOLUME XIV.
SEPTEMBER, 1893, JUNE, 1894.

BOSTON
KASSON AND PALMER

50 BROMFIELD STREET

1894.

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EDUCATION

DEVOTED TO THE SCIENCE, ART, PHILOSOPHY AND

VOL. XIV.

LITERATURE OF EDUCATION.

SEPTEMBER, 1893.

No. 1.

THE TEACHING OF HISTORY IN ELEMENTARY

DISCI

SCHOOLS.

ETHELBERT D. WARFIELD, LL D.,

PRESIDENT OF LAFAYETTE COLLEGE, EASTON, PA.

ISCIPLINE is the great end of elementary teaching. But discipline must be directed to the highest attainable objects. Drill for drill's sake is all very well. But if drill can be made to secure mental discipline and afford elementary instruction in some useful branch, its usefulness is doubled. Historical teaching in the elementary school must then be first a drill, and secondly it should be the foundation on which to build subsequent teaching in history. In order to secure mental discipline we must endeavor to train not a single faculty but all the faculties of the mind. There is an idea abroad that the only faculty worth training is the reasoning faculty. We hear all the time the injunction: "Teach the pupil to think." No one can advocate this more strongly than I. But thought is not the only function of the brain. Least of all is it the first. We must begin by teaching facts. We must then inculcate the habit of comparison between facts and observation of the relations of facts. Having reached this point we must proceed to infer from those observed, similarities, differences and relations: the conclusions give us new concepts. And thirdly, we must train the recognitive faculty by which the child will be able to recall both the facts taught and the inferences drawn. In order to do this the will must be stimulated, by frequent drill, to command

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