A HISTORY SYLLABUS FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS. Published by D. C. Heath &
Co., Boston, Mass., 1904. $1.20 net.
This Syllabus consists of four outlines in History. (1) Ancient History
(the major portion Greek and Roman), (2) Mediæval and Modern European
History, (3) English History, and (4) American History and Government.
General suggestion to teachers in regard to the method and use of the
outlines and useful bibliographies furnish helpful and necessary data
for the school work of preparation and recitation.
The primary object of the syllabus is to provide definite and practical
material in training pupils to meet the college entrance requirements.
Those schools, also, which do not prepare their pupils to pass college
examinations will find the book useful.
The syllabus is wisely not intended for boys and girls of thirteen years
of age. Pure narration is best for them at this age, as the living voice
serves to arouse interest and to furnish a stimulus for the sterner work
of wide and varied reading.
Grave, but not unsurmountable difficulties, will arise in the actual
working out of this syllabus from the inadequate preparation of the
teacher and from the failure to provide the student always with the
books for reading.
Yet these difficulties ought to be overcome, since the slavish method of
simply hearing the recitation from the text-book must give way to the
more comprehensive method of reading many writers.
As these outlines have been prepared by able university professors and
successful secondary school teachers, they are the product of careful
planning and actual experience.