Arizona republican., 1904-12-29
STUDY OF HISTORY
Or. BdbCOCk s Lecture Be- fore Teachers Institute
How It Has Been UnprOfitably Taught. How Its Proper Study Benefits Man Kind.


 tendent Fulton yesterday at SEQ. The opening exercises consisted of s;inglng by the institute, led by Prof. To .d of the high school, and a song. What Say the Bells" by a class Of seventh grade pupils MT. Francis favored the ] teachers with a cornet solo, acccmpa- nied by Miss Grace Hilgen. and in re- sponse to the hearty applause Miss 4Eilgen gave piano selection. Super intendent Fulton then introduced Dr. Kendric C. Babcock, president of the University of Arizona. who lectured OH the study and teaching of history.
 Dr. Babcock said in part: In most persons the recollection of the study of history is more or less tinged with disgust at the long list of names which constituted the staple article. It was dry, vast, vague and unrelated | to the affairs of the work a day world. This old conception is changing under better understanding of what his tory is and the value of the study cf the subject. The old name with the date attached no longer passes as legal tender in the educational market The sole statement of the mediaeval mon astic chronicle for single year This year the winter was longer and colder than usual" will hardly constitute his tory. What then is history in its larg- CT. deeper sense?
 | It is the logic of facts rather than the mere facts themselves. It is 'Hu- manity becoming conscious of itself, studying it's actions, motives and achievements through generations and around the world. A great Russian critic defined literature as "The story of the souls journey toward God.'' Similarly history might be defined as the story of humanity's progress to- ward the kingdom of God, the working out of the divine ideal in time as na- ture is the working out of the divine idea in space.
 History is therefore the record cf human events as related, each to it's cause and to it's effects. The signifi- canoe of such an obscure ard unpic- turesque event as the landing of tYven- ty negroes on the Virginia coast in 1919 is not understood unless the stu dent knows something of the develop ment of the African slave trade in Europe and the western coast Of Afri- ca from 1440 to 1919, unless he can trace the spread of this>b black blot On the margin of the American continent as it ate it's cankering way through half of the national fabric, unless he can relate it to the four awful years of civil war in the United States by which freedom was at last accomplish ed. When he knows these things he begins to comprehend the real history of the introduction of negro slavery into America,
 The study of history is the study of man in action. Natural science studies his environment his physical setting; physiology and psychology his me chanism; literature reveals his heres and fears, and his dreams and visions, his ambitions and philosOphies. Put no other subject than history takes him as a whole, working out his des- tiny and the destiny of his nation and race. This study must justify itself as did Wisdom of old, by her children in the streets and among the walks of men. It is not the mere satisfaction of curiosity in a closet; it is the trans lated, transmitted experience of hu- manity.
 The teaching of history has for its first work discrimination. Not every fact has title to consideration: not eN cry episode is worth recital l. rom the first lessons in history in tiIe stories told the child before the fire, by his mother, the stories of heroes and saints on to the end of the profoundest inVes- legations. the need is -discrintina- tion in what shall be formulated an1 taught. The process must be c.IInula- tive throughout, from one man to his group, to his age, to the prog :ess of society-from Washington to Jeffersnn, Adams, Hamilton and Franklin to the revolution, to the building of a nation, tC the establishment of the nation as one of the worlds greatest forces.
 
 mindedness, the ability to see men and events of the present day in their broad relations to what has gone be- fore and to what lies before. The diffi- culty of producing this result is very great. for it is not easy for even grown and trained men to realize that men of 925 A. D. lived their three hundred and siXty-five days just as did the men of 1903, that both ate and worked, walked and slept, loved and hated and strove in the same human fashion. To effect this result the teacher must ever strive to make the pupil comprehend the reality of four "others:" CD the "other folk in their time and under their own sky and circumstances; N(2) the "Other where,' the boy of the des- ert making real the idea of life in Canadian snows or in the Philippine jungles; (3) the "other time" the cus- toms and ideals of the Romans or the Egyptians or the East Indians, each in his own setting; (4) the "other why the reason fer a great change like the public spirit before the civil war or back of the reformation of the Church of Rome and the formation of the protestant faith
 When this new four of history is understood, is studied and taught, when it becomes a part of the life of the nation-not alas, in this genera tion or the next will it come-then there will be a saner, steadier citizen ship, keener, juster judgment of men and policies, fewer jumps to wrong conclusions and more patriotic zeal for civic righteousness in city. state and naf fiOn