STUDY OF HISTORY.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 114, 15 May 1924, Page 13

STUDY OF HISTORY.

IfEGUECTED SCHOOL SUBJECT.

TOO NARROW VIEW.

. At the annual conference of the New Zealand Secondary School Assistants' -lssociation, held in Wellington this Week, a paper was read by Mr. C. R. Jones, Auckland, on ''The Study of Histnry in Schools." It had been said that the -nay in which history was studied in America was an example to all British countries, and the speaker submitted that the time given to the subject in New Zealand was too short to produce good results. He desired to " enter' a plea on behalf of a subject which for many years past had been relegated to the background of school studies, partly because there had been no time to teach it, and partly because its value was never appreciated until the last decade. There were no historical schools in connection with New Zealand universities, and the professors apparently had little opportunity for individual research. Even in schools where it was a recognised branch of study the time devoted to it was too little, for the two one-hour periods' a week, which represented about the maximum, was hardly sufficient to give good results. There was no opportunity to make the past real to the pupil by quotation from contemporary letters, documents, diaries, etc. In fact, there was no time for discussions beyond the covers of prescribed text-books. The epeaker doubted if 10 per cent of New Zealand secondary schoolboys acquired any permanent interest in history. "Without some knowledge of the past a man was singularly out of touch with ■ recent or current history, yet there were | doubts as to the advisability of including history as a major subject in the curriculum of secondary schools. History was revelation. Gallipoli would always remain something more than a Turkish peninsula. One result of the study should be an enlightened patriotism, for it was impossible to look for patriotic feeling in one who was ignorant of what his country had stood for in the development of civilisation. Picture Of Man's Progress. They were inclined to take a narrow view of history in New Zealand schools. It was strictly national, and a broad foundation in world history from earliest. times should precede a study of modern history. Some of this work might be done in the primary schools, the idea *being to get a complete picture of man's progress with a more intensive study of the last 150 years. In conclusion, the speaker said that to leave the present generation of boys as ignorant as their fellows in general were of the state of Europe and Asia was to invite 'disaster in the future. In the framing of a new world, which in the future may be ■ threatened by new dangers, the greatest importance would attach to whatever conduced to the formation of enlightened public opinion in all the great democracies of the world. Hence the revision of the history syllabus, so as to include a comprehensive and just survey of the world history, seemed to be one of the most obvious lessons of recent times.