Chương Chương 60 · Concerning The Pictures
CONCERNING THE PICTURES OF THIS BOOK AND A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
The day of the historical textbook without illustrations has gone.
Pictures and photographs of famous personages and equally famous
occurrences cover the pages of Breasted and Robinson and Beard. In this
volume the photographs have been omitted to make room for a series of
home-made drawings which represent ideas rather than events.
While the author lays no claim to great artistic excellence (being
possessed of a decided leaning towards drawing as a child, he was
taught to play the violin as a matter of discipline,) he prefers to
make his own maps and sketches because he knows exactly what he wants
to say and cannot possibly explain this meaning to his more proficient
brethren in the field of art. Besides, the pictures were all drawn for
children and their ideas of art are very different from those of their
parents.
To all teachers the author would give this advice—let your boys and
girls draw their history after their own desire just as often as you
have a chance. You can show a class a photograph of a Greek temple or
a mediæval castle and the class will dutifully say, “Yes, Ma’am,” and
proceed to forget all about it. But make the Greek temple or the Roman
castle the centre of an event, tell the boys to make their own picture
of “the building of a temple,” or “the storming of the castle,” and
they will stay after school-hours to finish the job. Most children,
before they are taught how to draw from plaster casts, can draw after
a fashion, and often they can draw remarkably well. The product of
their pencil may look a bit prehistoric. It may even resemble the work
of certain native tribes from the upper Congo. But the child is quite
frequently prehistoric or upper-Congoish in his or her own tastes, and
expresses these primitive instincts with a most astonishing accuracy.
The main thing in teaching history, is that the pupil shall remember
certain events “in their proper sequence.” The experiments of many
years in the Children’s School of New York has convinced the author
that few children will ever forget what they have drawn, while very few
will ever remember what they have merely read.
It is the same with the maps. Give the child an ordinary conventional
map with dots and lines and green seas and tell him to revaluate that
geographic scene in his or her own terms. The mountains will be a
bit out of gear and the cities will look astonishingly mediæval. The
outlines will be often very imperfect, but the general effect will be
quite as truthful as that of our conventional maps, which ever since
the days of good Gerardus Mercator have told a strangely erroneous
story. Most important of all, it will give the child a feeling of
intimacy with historical and geographic facts which cannot be obtained
in any other way.
Neither the publishers nor the author claim that “The Story of Mankind”
is the last word to be said upon the subject of history for children.
It is an appetizer. The book tries to present the subject in such a
fashion that the average child shall get a taste for History and shall
ask for more.
To facilitate the work of both parents and teachers, the publishers
have asked Miss Leonore St. John Power (who knows more upon this
particular subject than any one else they could discover) to compile a
list of readable and instructive books.
The list was made and was duly printed.
The parents who live near our big cities will experience no difficulty
in ordering these volumes from their booksellers. Those who for the
sake of fresh air and quiet, dwell in more remote spots, may not find
it convenient to go to a book-store. In that case, Boni and Liveright
will be happy to act as middle-man and obtain the books that are
desired. They want it to be distinctly understood that they have not
gone into the retail book business, but they are quite willing to do
their share towards a better and more general historical education, and
all orders will receive their immediate attention.
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