Reconstruction of History for Teaching Purposes

Abstract

The present age is calling on education to do two things for every child in the United States :2 give him a vocation in life, and an understanding of the society in which he lives. In this latter undertaking on the part of education history work must be made to have a very important part. It must get farther away from the traditional conception and treatment which places the work in our schools on a disciplinary and cultural basis only. The sooner we can banish the polite-information idea from our history study the better off we will be. We must substitute for it the idea that history gives useful information, useful because it helps throw light on the problems of our times, or is a study of those problems directly. We want men and women who can tell where our chariot of state is going by knowing the meaning of the tendencies of the times. We want them to know how to vote