TEACHING OF HISTORY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXXI, Issue LXXXI, 14 May 1920, Page 5

TEACHING OF HISTORY.

i A short talk on educational questions was given to a conference of teachers and inspects assembled in WeCgton on Wednesday by Dr Newton, Travelling Professor of Imperial History of first holder <rf the chair, which was estabhahed under the Cecil Rhodes Trust I Vr Aewton discussed generally the composition of the curriculum, dealing : with it m most part from the point of view of secondary and higher educa- %? ni-t%? W1^ h the special y'^VLes and disabilities of certain special courses of study. He was most interesting in his remarks on the teaching of history He was of the opinion. that th e study of h,story ought to be given much importance among subjects to be taught to the young, and that the matter to be taught under this head Bhould not be simply the contents of textbooks of the old pattern. It was proper that the child should be given som c idea of the growth and development of the free institutions of British countries, so that he might have some good idea of now the things he saw around him came to be. This was knowledge most necessary to the boy or girl who wouM one day have to exercise the rights and duties of citizenship. Without that knowledge there was danger that wrong ideas would be formed, and the community "was in the greatest danger of falling under the worst possible form of government—rule by an uninformed democracy. In these islands he did not consider that history should be taught from the narrow viewpoint still adopted in England. The child in these parts of the world ought to know something of the growth of the colonial Empire. There should also be more study of human geography than had been common in the past.