ill help the early explorers to blaze their way through
the dense forests, will toil with the pioneers in making homes for
themselves in Canada, and will suffer with the missionaries in their
hardships and perils.
For these pupils the oral method is the only one to use, for there is
nothing that appeals to children more quickly and with more reality than
what they _hear_ from the teacher. The oral method should find a large
place in the teaching of history in all the Forms. It may be added that
the teachers who use this method will find history become a more real
and interesting study to themselves.
2. What the pupils hear should be reinforced by giving them something to
_see_. Whatever pictures are obtainable (see pp. 45, 127) should be used
freely at all stages, for the visual images of children are a powerful
aid to their understanding; it is for this reason that books for
children are now so fully illustrated, and the same principle should be
applied to the teaching of history.
As soon as the children are ready for it, reference should be made to
maps to illustrate historical facts. (See p. 127.) They should see on
the map the course that Columbus took across the unknown sea;
Champlain's explorations become real when they are traced on the map and
the children have a concrete picture to carry away with them. In fact
the subjects of geography, art, and constructive work, treated under the
head of correlated subjects, are used in history with the aim of making
it real through the eye. (See pp. 40, 44, 45.)
3. A greater difficulty presents itself when we have to deal, in the
higher Forms, with topics like the Magna Charta and the Clergy Reserves,
and it is a difficulty that will test to the full the resourcefulness
of the teacher. How can the preceding conditions and the terms of the
Magna Charta be brought home to a class? How can children be brought to
appreciate the difficulties connected with the question of Clergy
Reserves? A few words about the latter may suggest a means.
Two aspects of the Clergy Reserves question stand out prominently, the
religious and the economic. The religious aspect will be the most
difficult for Ontario children, for they have no immediate knowledge of
what a State Church is--the point on which the religious dispute turned;
nor do they know enough about the government of the religious bodies to
which they belong to make the matter clear to them. A full understanding
must come la
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