How Our State Educators Aid the Study of Maine History Sprague's Journal of Maine History Vol. 6 August September October 1918 No. 2 page 67-68 How Our State Educators Aid the Study of Maine History Recently we have had our attention called to a pamphlet issued by the State of Maine Educational Department in 1916. It is entitled " High School Libraries and Book List." It states that it is " A pamphlet describing the scope of High School libraries together with a suggested list of books." it does not profess to suggest a line of textbooks, only books of reference and books that will be of material benefit to the youth in such reading as they ought to pursue as scholars in the high schools. Some of the books listed may now be rare, yet they are all acces- sible in the State library at Augusta and in all of our larger public libraries in the State. And the authors of this pamphlet truly say, " The State Library Commission places at the disposal of schools a large amount of material," and they inform them of the traveling libraries available for all of the towns ill the state, etc. We turned to its lists of books recommended for the study of history. They embraced many authors on Ancient, European and American history. In all about one hundred and thirteen. And forty-eight books on American history were approved. Yet, in all those lists, not a single one of the hundreds of volumes which have been published relating to the history of Maine was referred to or mentioned directly or indirectly. And this from the State of Maine Educational Department." In the language of the man of the street, " can you beat it We are not criticizing their recommendations so far as they go. They include some of the very best authors on American history, such as Parkman, Fiske, Lodge, Channing, Halsey, etc. The contention of the journal is-has been, from the first and will be as long, as its life is spared-that this studied and deter-, mined policy of our school authorities at Augusta, of ignoring and passing by Maine history with every appearance of contempt is fundamentally and absolutely wrong. The influence of this reactionary and retrogressive view point of Our State school directors has evidently extended in other direc- tions. In the "State budgett" for 1917, everything in the way of slight appropriations along this line which with one or two exceptions had formerly been the policy of the State since 1863 was ruthlessly slaughtered and the legislature followed its edict. The journal's motto, platform or battle cry-whatever you may be pleased to call it, is now and ever will be: FIRST TEACH THE BOY AND GIRL TO KNOW AND LOVE THEIR OWN TOWN, COUNTY, AND STATE AND YOU HAVE GONE A LONG WAY TOWARDS TEACHING THEM TO KNOW AND LOVE THEIR COUNTRY. We are not advising -against the scholars of our public schools reading any of the books approved by this pamphlet. We only desire and insist that these mental advisers of what the scholars of Maine should read shall themselves sometime, compre- hend the fact that from 1603 to this hour the history of Maine is rich in subjects that are fascinating and invigorating food for the child's imagination and for the development of what is spiritual and artistic. It is not necessary to cite Macaulay's renowned essay on Mitford's history of Greece, to demonstrate the value of the Greek and fable stuff. All the books in this pamphlet should be read and studied by high school scholars. All that these savants need is a broadening of their vision. It should become large enough to understand that -Maine has a distinct history all its own, which should be known and studied as such. To revert to our first thought it seems to us that the designers of this, pamphlet could at least have called attention to the 46 vol- umes issued by the Maine Historical Society, and to scores of other works on Maine history to be found in our public and private libraries. (c) 1998 Courtesy of the Androscoggin Historical Society ************************************************* * * * * NOTICE: Printing the files within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. * * * * The USGenWeb Project makes no claims or estimates of the validity of the information submitted and reminds you that each new piece of information must be researched and proved or disproved by weight of evidence. It is always best to consult the original material for verification.