UNIVERSITY COURIER.
13
November 7th closes the first session of this year. The enrolled number of students up to the present numbers about one-half thousand.
Full lines of fine and medium grade shoes at Mason's.
Last Friday's election in one of the literary societies illustrated finely the remark made last year by a member now absent. Said he: "We fellows come into the literary society just to get office, and what is more, we get them, too." As he had had one, he probably spoke from experience.
A number of the city clerks sent a committee to the students' Y.M.C.A.asking admission into the Association.The students have the subject under consideration.
Stenographic note books at Warren's.
Drop in at Hume's, 125 Massachusetts street, and see the nice line of gent's shoes just received.
Lost.—Gold ring, with an amethyst setting. Finder will be rewarded by leaving it at the office.
We understand that arrangements are being made to bring some of America's finest artists to the new opera house this winter.
Job lot of writing paper at $ 12\frac{1}{2} $ cents per pound at Warren's.
Mr. Riffle, the Oread reporter, speaks in very plain terms regarding the contest election, through this issue. For this act we suppose he will be summarily "bounced" from the office by the "powers that be," at the next election.
We dislike to speak of ourselves, yet cannot help expressing some degree of pride at the position the COURIER now enjoys. Whether the students of the University be divided according to the department, class, society, or sex they belong to, it will be found that each party has a fair representation in this magazine. We venture the statement that there is not a college journal in the United States in which the students are as impartially represented as in the Courier. Seven pages of the paper are devoted to advertisements, every one of which is paying full rates. Our subscription list is larger than we ever expected. What more could be asked?
Commencing to-day, the following are the appointments for Junior rhetoricals. For the week ending November 10th—Monday, Walter Britton; Tuesday, A. S. Curdy; Wednesday, Agnes Clark; Thursday, J. P. Jack; Friday, S. A. Detwiler. For the week ending November 17th—Monday, C. D. Dean; Tuesday, W. W. Douglas; Wednesday, Agnes Emery; Thursday, W. T. Finley; Friday, Mary Gilmore.
On the evening of October 20th Miss Lena VanVorhes was united in marriage to Elmer Butler. Both parties are well known in Lawrence, Miss VanVorhes having attended the University during the past two years, and Mr. Butler being employed in Lyon's grocery store. Our congratulations.
Prof. Carruth states that the German students have done more and better work than in any previous half session. The Sophomores and second year Normals will spend the rest of the session on the Grammar, also translating Dickens' Christmas story, Marley's Ghost, into the German. The Juniors will commence the study of German literature, varied by the composition of essays, and lectures from the professor.
NORMAL.
HISTORY IN OUR COMMON SCHOOLS.
This is a subject which deserves the earnest attention of those who teach our common schools. In cities where pupils are closely graded, history can be taught much more advantageously, but in our country schools where, perhaps, a dozen different grades are given to the care of one teacher, the lack-of-time element interferes with, and often leads to the total neglect of this study.
Without stopping to debate the importance of history as compared with arithmetic and other branches taught, let us try to ascertain why the neglect, and if there be a remedy.
Perhaps the first great obstacle is the all prevading notion, not only in the minds of pupils and parents, but in the minds of teachers, that history is of minor importance while mathematics is the great I AM of the school room. Hand in hand with, and as a result of this prevading idea, we find teachers less proficient in history than in the other branches. And to be successful in any branch the teacher must be enthusiastic, and to be enthusiastic he must understand the subject thoroughly.
History is not the dry unreal budget of dates which some seem to think, and the sooner the notion is swept from the minds of the pupils the better. Make those whose names and lives appear upon record, become actual flesh and blood men, the same as the men of to-day and the little urchins will not say that history is dry.
Suppose that the teacher should commence at the other end of history once. Select a number of his brightest pupils and let them represent the different Presidents of the United States. Let them personate the characters they assume. Here the teacher should use some judgment. As some pupils stand head and shoulders above the others in influence, so some of our Presidents are giants, while others mere pigmies. The influential pupils should represent the influential Presidents. Write the names on their caps if necessary, let the whole school become interested, and by enthusiasm make the scheme popular.
Now, having organized, make each find out what important thing he has done, set them to asking their parents. This will interest the patrons and double the speed with which the pupils will acquire facts. And as the little folks find out that their parents personally knew of, or knew these men, history will not seem such a foreign subject after all.
No text-book will be needed for recitation, but soon all text-book will be in demand. It will not require very long for the pupils to find out where to look in their histories for events which occurred at different periods of time. The back part of their books will not long remain the vague unexplored waste it now is. They will learn how to use a history, something that not one in ten know how to do.
Let the time of recitation be occupied in discussions and questions, which will lead to further research and study. In this way, and in a surprisingly short time, will dates, periods, and events, from the present back to Washington's day, become fixed in the minds of the pupils. In a similar manner can the preceding parts of history be discussed, until the different wars, the different Generals who lead in them, the early voyagers and discoverers all become active images in the minds of the children.