MUZZEY'S AMERICAN HISTORY, REVISED

The most widely used textbook in its field.

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JUST PUBLISHED

THE FOUNDATIONS OF AMERICAN NATIONALITY

By EVARTS BOUTELL GREENE, Professor of History, University of Illinois

670 PAGES

WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

A HISTORY of the United States from its begin

ning in Europe down to the adoption and establishment of the Constitution (1789). The book lays emphasis on the racial, religious, and political elements which have contributed to the formation of American nationality. The political and economic history of the various colonies and of the new nation formed in 1776 receives thorough and adequate treatment. On the other hand, the details of geographical discovery and exploration, Indians, and military campaigns, receive a minimum of attention. With Professor Fish's companion volume, The Development of American Nationality, this book presents for colleges a short history of the American people.

Volume XIII. Number 9.

$2.00 a year. 25 cents a copy.

The next annual meeting will take place in Cleveland, Ohio, at the time of the annual convention of the Department of Superintendence of the National Education Association, about March 1, 1923. The program of the meeting will be published in the February number of THE HISTORICAL OUTLOOK, and mailed to those who are not subscribers at about that time. It is hoped that a full meeting of the officers and members may then be had and that the plans of the organization may be fully discussed.

Two PROPOSED AMENDMENTS

Two amendments to the constitution will be proposed at Cleveland. They will be published in the February number of THE HISTORICAL OUTLOOK and mailed to those who are not subscribers. The following statement of them is made in the hope that all who have suggestions as to their advisability will communicate with the secretary at their earliest possible convenience. Some inquiry among the members seems to show that the amendments will be approved.

The proposed changes grow out of the problems incident to a coöperative movement based largely on the principle of federation. The purpose is to secure the more active participation in the work of the National Council of the associations which can contribute most directly and usefully to the work of the National Council; and to guard against any temptation to commit our organization to the endorsement of any immature or ill-considered schemes.

One amendment will provide that the present Advisory Board, with the officers elected at the regular annual meetings, shall constitute a Board of Directors and shall be expected to guide the policies of the National Council, devising ways and means for carrying out the policies. The other will provide that the statement of purpose in the constitution shall include a self-denying ordinance to the effect that it is untra vires of the National Council to endorse or advocate the endorsement of any single program of studies or method of teaching.

Members will be interested to know more fully why these amendments are proposed now.

The germ of the National Council was the idea that the teachers of the social studies should set up machinery through which to coöperate in developing their work. The need of such machinery had been felt for more than a decade. Out of it grew THE HISTORICAL OUTLOOK, formerly called the History Teachers Magazine. From it sprang efforts in the East, the Mississippi Valley, and California to create a national association of teachers. Since the charter

members of the National Council had no other notion than that of a coöperative exchange of information, the need of a self-denying ordinance did not occur to the ft committee on a constitution.

With the germal idea of mutual helpfulness went the secondary idea of federation as a method. There were already a number of associations which devoted a part of their energies to developing the social studies in the schools. Most of them looked upon this aspect of their work as secondary to the development of departments of university teaching and research. Since they were actuated by the natural impulse to secure for their several subjects separate recognition in the schools, they were working in many cases at cross-purposes, and wasting energy which was sadly needed to construct a better system of teaching. They, as university scholars, did not quite realize that in the schools the same group of teachers generally handled all of their subjects when these subjects were handled well and not relegated to filling up the programs of teachers who had no interest in them.

When the Advisory Board was created in the hope that associations of scholars would not hesitate to appoint advisers to guard the new movement against mistakes, it was found that a few of them took the matter of advising very seriously and feared that the appearance of their names in an advisory capacity would in some way commit them to what the National Council might do. The reason for asking the appointment of representative advisers was the wish to avoid picking persons from fields of scholarship with so narrow a vision that important bodies of opinion and stimulus might be neglected. Handpicked advisers may be selected to advise anything that is wanted. The members of these established associations seemed to think that it was better for them either to stay out of the movement or to take an active part in its guidance.

The god-fathers of the National Council would at the outset have created such a Board of Directors as is now proposed if they had supposed it was possible. to secure such active coöperation in the movement. The formulation of the proposed changes has grown out of the discussions in a Joint Commission of representatives of the associations, which was created in December, 1921, to consider the general problems of a coöperative effort for the social studies; but the changes have met with most hearty welcome from those who have been with the National Council from the beginning. The members of the Joint Commission believe that there is no doubt that the parent association from which they come will be willing to give active support to the National Council.

THE MACHINERY AS PROPOSED Under the revised constitution, the organization will be somewhat as follows, details to be worked out in the drafting of the amendments on the basis of suggestions received from the members who react to the present discussion:

1. A Board of Directors consisting of (a) five delegates from the associations of historians, political scientists, economists, sociologists, and geographers; (b) five from the organizations of elementary and secondary school principals, superintendents, special ists in educational research, and heads of normal schools; (c) five from the sectional associations of teachers of history and the other social studies in New England, the Middle States, the South, the Mississippi Valley, and the Pacific Coast; (d) and the officers elected by the members of the National Council at the regular annual meetings. In addition, it has been suggested two others be added to the Board of Directors. These are the editor of THE HISTORICAL OUTLOOK, to present the problems of our journal; and a corresponding secretary whose duty it would be to ascertain and to report from time to time the progress in the social studies in other countries.

2. An Executive Committee, charged with the active direction of the affairs of the organization in carrying out the policies formulated by the Board of Directors, and consisting of the officers elected at the annual meetings and of such other Directors as the Board may designate. It is proposed that the committee consist of seven members.

3. In the interest of division of labor, the Board of Directors will probably find it advisable to set up standing committees on such problems of investigation as the objectives sought through the social studies; the materials available for use; the methods of instruction recommended in this field; and the training of teachers. The efforts of these and other committees will be unified through common responsibility to the Board of Directors.

4. The best results will not be attained if the work of the National Council is too highly centralized. It has been proposed that branches of the National Council be set up in all of the states. A number of the members are so much interested in the movement that groups have already been formed in some states. The time has passed for pronouncements from a central agency. What seems to be needed for the greatest progress is the evolution of methods through interchange of stimulus and information and a gradual growth of a unified plan. The proposals to set up state branches does not mean duplication of the present state organizations of teachers of history and other social studies where these already exist. Those local organizations now at work have shown themselves disposed to meet the National Council more than half way in such a policy as has been outlined above.

5. There are nearly five thousand teachers now engaged in an effort to perfect the teaching of Latin

in this country. Surely as large a number may be counted on for the social studies. Such a membership would mean one member in each state for each 20,000 of population. The state representatives who have been consulted believe that this number could soon be reached. Some expect to exceed the quota within a year.

6. Caution. It is of the greatest importance, in the interest of avoiding dogmatic pronouncements which will make for friction and confusion, that the channels the collecting, systematic statement, and work of our organization be kept to its proper distributing of information. Every member will strengthen the movement by helping to keep these limits clearly in mind.

THE HISTORICAL OUTLOOK

Other similar organizations have found the establishment of a journal the first necessary step and the greatest difficulty in their enterprise. For such a movement, a journal is nothing more than the systematic and well organized periodical publication of such information as all of the members should have. The National Council has such a journal ready to hand.

Its

This periodical was started more than a decade ago by Professor McKinley, now of the University of Pennsylvania, as his contribution to the cause of effective teaching. Its subscribers now number about five thousand, and it has the official recognition and support of the American Historical Association. name has indicated that it was mainly for history teachers because nearly all of the teachers of the social studies are classed as history teachers; but the editor has recognized from the beginning that the movement for the National Council is the best guarantee of the best development of all of the social studies. From the beginning, he has published material on civics, economics, geography, and sociology; and he will doubtless be only too glad to enter bility and labor of maintaining the journal may be into any arrangement by which some of the responsishifted from his shoulders. For a number of years he maintained it at a financial loss; while it is now about self-supporting, any educational journal of the constructively conservative sort must be thought of as a thing to be carried rather than as an asset in itself. The editor has turned over the present issue to the National Council. It is the first of a series of annual numbers which will summarize the progress of the organization and of the social studies. This first effort in summarizing is of course no indication of what future ones will be when our committees are fully at work.

It is to be hoped that as many members of the National Council as can possibly do so will become regular subscribers to the journal. For them to do so will greatly increase their own equipment and will greatly lessen the burdens of the office of the secretary. If it should eventuate that all of the members become subscribers, the work of circularizing the members. and making announcements to them would be reduced to a minimum.