The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-12-05
STATE HISTORY FOR
TIE PUBLIC SCHOOL
New Era I'm Educational CamDaign
Demands Better Books. An Ideal
State History.

State History.
We are approaching a new era m
our educational campaign. The slogan
has hitherto been More Schools; it
will soon be Better Textbooks in the
Hands Of h Pupils" We are on the
threshold Of changes in our courses Of
study in the public schools hardly
dreamed OF ten years ago. What we
have considered fundamental subjects
are going to be readapted to present
day school needs or eliminated alto
gether.
The Traditional State History.
For some time / have been reading
State histories, and the conviction has
grown upon me that they are an out
worn inheritance from England. Il
the traditional English History the
reign Of the is the chrome
logical unit. and so in u United
States Histories we divide by Presi-
dents, and in our State Histories by
Governors. The pupil is supposed to
memorize both names and dates. Add
wars to this list and you have the
usual State History. The Governors,
in other words, are lined up in single
file and the pupil has a word with
each as he passes with his teacher
down the line from the first to the
last. PauseS are made only in the
case Of wars. Here the guoernatorlal
ST. cam bIoadens out into a storm
tossed lake but soon narroWs again
into the single strcc~
Is this history? Will this sort Of
study ever put the pupil in touch
with the great constructive forces
that are making and nave made every
State it is? The fact is We are
living in a democracy but repeating
for the school children the formula OF
a monarchy.
The Remedy.
We must democratlze our history
not by Engineering but by widening
and diverslfying the record. The ira
0itional history ends where real his
tory SHOULD begin. Fifty pages it
seems to me, are enough for the
purely narrative part of any State
History. This narrative shOul deal
sparingly with names and dates, but
it should present Interestingly and
lucidly the main events from the
founding to the present time. This
outline, however, at which most his
tories stop, hould be but the real he-
ginning. The pupil learns through
this narrative what has been done;
he is now to learn how it was done.
The first part may be considered
The Result. The second part is The
Interpretation of the Result. In the
second part he is to earn the signifi-
canoe of the constructive agencies that
have determined and conditioned the
present status. It is as if the pupil
were shown a majestic building. After
seeing it's imposing outlines his first
question is: How was it built?"
Constructive Forces.
What are these constructive forces?
The most important are agriculture,
transportation, manufacturing, gov
eminent, literature, education, reli-
gion and representative leadership.
These seem to me- the natural and
necessary headings of the chapters
that should follow the narrative in
PRODUCTION. The length Of these
chapters and the method Of treatment
would of course be conditioned on the
kind of evolution through which the
State had gone. But, however modi-
fed, these are the forces which have
moulded the past of every American
State and in which the American
places his confident trust for the fu-
ture. History must correlate these
forces with the past and must in
terpret them in terms of the present.
It must give the pupil such a reaiiza-
ton Of their significance as Will make
the preceding narrative Of his States
development seem not a meaningless
tale but the inevitable reSuit OF inter-
acting forces. In the case Of North
Carolina, the recent unparalleled ad-
vance along all Of these lines and the
concurrent efficiency OF the State His
torical Commission make this method
of treatment a practical necessity. NO
other treatment can make even ap-
proximately plain to the pupil Or to
the outside reader just what North
Carolina is today and why. Let US
glance at these forces in the proposed
order of treatment.
Agriculture.
No State is making greater COM
parative progress today in agriculture
thar North Carolina. Ever the Boys,
the captains Of the corn Drigades, are
enthusiastic. Not only have agf1cui-