Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-05-09
TEACHING THE HISTORY
OF THE WAR.

page the result Of the investiga-
tons of Mr.. Shepherd as printed in
Our World" and reprinted in the
Literary Digest with reference to
what the children Of Germany are
taught in the schools with reference
to the causes of the World wal and
its effects. In both countries Mr..
Shepherd finds that no reference
whatever to the wal is made in the
text books and the teachers are
prohibited from telling the pupils
anything about it. The reason in
both France and Germany for this
strange omission is the same. The
parents do not agree on the SUBJ
ject. The teachers do not agree.
The educational board experts do
not agree. Therefore they leave
the matter out Of their history
classes as controversial matter and
leave the children to learn what
they can about the war and its
causes from their parents, or from
outside sources. p
It may surprise some people to
learn that conditions are not much
better in Great Britain, and the
same obstacles to teaching the his
tory of the war exists there. MI.
Shepherd went to London and inter-
viewed Mr.. Richards who has charge
of the English school inspectors
and asked him what the children
were being taught about the wal.
I'VE have an Anglo-Saxon dread"
he said, "of permitting the govern
ment to control the schools. All
school government in England is
local. The government does not
control the publication of school
text books. Any sehoolmaster or
member of a school board may go
to any publisher and purchase any
book he wishes and introduce 1t
into the local school.
THE only thing the national gov
eminent does is to inspect and ad-
wise. Our inspectors move about
among all the schools constantly,
and, if they find anything aniss-
subjects being wrongly considered
or improper books being used
they make recommendations which,
in time reach the local authorities.
And then the proper changes are
usually made. The local authori-
ties rarely disagree with the ma
tional school inspectors"
In a glass Ease in Mr.. Richards
office were rows of text books. He
went to this case and took out a
dozen or more small books.
Il won't say that text books on
the Great War are not being writ
ten and even put into the schools
in some localities" he said. But
the inspectors have an infallible
test for these books. If the books
do not meet the test, they are usual
" withdrawn from the school,"
what is the test7" asked Mr..
Shepherd.
"You see. all these books are
written anonymously. No reliable
and well-known text book writer's
have attempted to write any text
book of the war. All the school
histories that have appeared, with
a very few exceptions. have been
thrown together for greedy publish
ers, by hack writers. The paper Is
poor, as you will notice, the illus
trations are u~nspeakably poor, and
the statements of facts are abso-
lutely unreliable.
Every one Of these unsigned
anonymous text books found by our
inspectors in use in the school,
rooms is Immediately thrown out.
The result is that children in Eng
land are not learning the history
of the war in our schools"
"What about geography" asked
Mr.. Shepherd.
"Well, the teachers are present
ing geography in hit-or-miss way.
The map-makers are not taking any
chances on making maps for school
room use which may be right today
but wrong tomorrow.
"As a usual thing the teachers
use colored crayons and draw the
new borders and the new countries
in the old maps"
"And there you are" gasps Mr..
Shepherd. Although In Germany,
France and England every child
must learn to read, "the printing
press is paralyzed and the historian
is palsied when it comes to the
task of telling the new generation