e able to supply
the personal details that make the figures of history real, living, men
and women. (See the Story of Florence Nightingale, p. 62.) The teacher
who does this will himself come to have a more lively interest in
history.

The teacher must also know children. For the understanding of history,
pupils are dependent on their previous knowledge of life and its
interests. They must be led by timely suggestions or questions to see
the connection between their own knowledge of life and the experiences
of the actors in history. Without this connection, the facts of history
remain meaningless.

To present history to the pupils in an interesting way, the oral method
is the best. It is not necessary for the teacher to have a special gift
for narration; any one who is really interested in the story to be told
is able to tell it well enough to hold the attention of the class. In
narration, mere fluency is not the chief requisite; it is more important
that the pupils should feel the teacher's interest in the topic. The
narration must also be confined to the facts and details that count; the
teacher needs to know what to omit as well as what to narrate. If the
matter has been well thought out and clearly arranged in topics with due
regard to the relation of cause and effect, the telling of the story
will be an easier matter, and the pupils will be trained also in a clear
and logical way of treating history. The oral method should be supported
by the free use of devices for making the story real. (See p. 34.) While
it is quite true that certain important topics are to be thoroughly
mastered as centres of connection for the less important facts, yet it
must be insisted on that a more important aim of the teacher is to
arouse and stimulate an interest in history so that the pupil's study of
it may continue after the close of his school-days. No mastery of facts
through memorization alone will counterbalance the lack of interest in,
and liking for, the subject.

CHAPTER V

ILLUSTRATIVE LESSONS

The following lessons are to be considered as suggestive rather
than directive, as illustrating how the principles of teaching may be
applied in a particular subject. Definite knowledge of child-nature and
of children's experiences, of the materials to be used, and of the
purpose to be accomplished in teaching a subject, determines, in the
main, the choice of method. This statement is especially true of
history, for, unl