The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 1911. TEACHING HISTORY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 60, 6 March 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 1911. TEACHING HISTORY.

At tlio sitting of the Historical Association in Manchester in tho middle of January, some enlightening discussion took place. One speaker, Professor Hearnshaw, expressed the view that history, like other subjects, had to justify itself Bin the face of the keen competition to obtain places in tlie school curriculum, and to justify itself not only to educational theorists but also to practical business men. Lord Morley had said: “I do rot in the least want to know what happened in the past except ns it enables me to see my way more clearly through vnhat ils happening now.” That, he thought, was a practical test, •and submitted that 'history in relation to politics fulfilled three important functions. It supplied a storehouse ■of political precedent—it did for it© race what memory did for the individual. It was tho memory of tho race, and by its means man was .able to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. The lessons which the English race learnt in the seventeenth century in their dealings with the House of Stuart had so impressed thiem•s'cJves on the national mind that they woiifd never have to he learnt again, ror should wo ever attempt to treat a, colony as we treated the American colonies a century later. And then history revealed the antecedent to present-day political problems. Take the problem of Home Rule. The main facts which. made that problem so very hard arose during the course of the sixteenth century. Similarly the Poor Law question was very -old, and the controversy between those who supported the majority and those who .supported the minority report was largely a question whether wo should go back to 1834 or 1601. And finally history served as a school of political method. History was old politics grown cool. Ifc taught us mental detachment, impartiality, the suspension of judgment, and wide charity. Professor Hearns haw further declared that the great purpose for which history was taught ought to be to train citizens to perform their duties as such. Dealing especially with the attitude of the teacher towards controversial questions of tho present day, the Professor 'suggested that until adolescence—fourteen years of age—presentday controversial problems should he strictly barred in every shape and form in the school curriculum, and that as to the problems of the past, those of tho 17th century, for example, the teacher should train the pupil in tho historical method and show him hwv to approach these questions with openness of min d. Secondly, when the ago of fourteen was reached, and tho pupil had become more mature in Ms thought, definite instruction should ho given, in adult schools or continuation schools, in modern political problems, but again from a. strictly impartial point of view. In conclusion, Professor Hearnslnnv bold that the teacher should always maintain an altitude of strict impartiality in respect of the political controversies of tho time.