life is also too complex to be understood by him yet; he can understand an individual hero better than he can the complex idea of a nation.  How many children would be able to begin a study of history by having, as one writer suggests, “a short series of lessons ... to make some simple and fundamental historical ideas intelligible—­a state, a nation, a dynasty, a monarch, a parliament, legislation, the administration of justice, taxes, civil and foreign war!” These are ideas far beyond the comprehension of the beginner.  We must be guided, not by “what happens to be near the child in time and place, but by what lies near his interests.”  As Professor Bourne says:  “it may be that mediaeval man, because his characteristics belong to a simple type, is closer to the experience of a child than many a later hero.”  With older children it is more likely to be true that the life of history lies “in its personal connections with what is here and now and still alive with us”; with historic places and relics, etc., which make their appeal first through the senses; with institutions, such as trial by jury; with anniversaries and celebrations of great events which may be used to arouse interest in the history which they suggest and recall.

However, as McMurry points out, we are in a peculiarly favourable position in Canada, because we have in our own history, in the comparatively short time of 400 years, the development of a free and prosperous country from a state of wildness and savagery.  The early stages of our history present those elements of life that appeal strongly to children—­namely, Indians with all their ways of living and fighting, and the early settlers with their simpler problems and difficulties.  The development of this simpler life to the more complex life of the present can be more readily understood by children as they follow up the changes that have taken place. (See McMurry, Special Method in History, pp. 26-30.) Of course, at every step appeal must be made to the experiences of children, as the teacher knows them.  In Civics, however, the beginning must be made with conditions that exist to-day—­schools, taxes, the policeman, the postmaster, etc.  The beginning of the real teaching of history may then be made at the beginning of Canadian History, as this will enable the child to go gradually from the simple, or individual, to the complex, and will also allow the teacher to make use of whatever historical remains may be within reach.

CHAPTER II

GENERAL METHODS IN THE TEACHING OF HISTORY

There are many methods used in the teaching of history.  A brief description of the principal ones is given for reference merely, since their best features are incorporated in a combination of methods, which is strongly recommended to teachers, and is described fully in succeeding pages.

1. Methods based on the arrangement and selection of the matter:  Chronological, Topical