ADVANCEMENT IN MAINE Sprague's Journal of Maine History VII AUG. SEPT. OCT. 1919 No. 2 pages 100-102 ADVANCEMENT IN MAINE It is with feelings of gratification that we observe a real advance- ment in public opinion relative to the importance of the study of state history in our public schools. For the past ten years the writer has advocated this in the press, in occasional public addresses, and in the pages of the Journal. In volume one (pp.194-195) the Journal said: The record of the struggles, the victories and the defeats of the toilers and the moilers of today will be either an inspiration or a warning to those who will toil and moil tomorrow. It is inevitable that the story of the past may, if utilized, serve to light the pathway in making the story of the present. If this is a fact regarding history generally, the history of races, nations and peoples, it follows logically that it applies with comparative force to the plantation or a backwoods settlement. Then the study of your own local history develops and cultivates an interest in the entire history of the evo- lution of the world's civilization. For trace back as you may the circumstances surrounding any of the first settlements in Colonial Maine and within your ken is the fascinating history of Europe, and her social, economic, political and religious development during the same period of time. We behold not only the human ferment of more than two hundred years participated in by Catholic, Protestant -- followers of Luther and Calvin, and are not only in close touch with the intrigues and clash of the old world in those days, but we also see much of the lurid tragedy of the red man's race and its pathetic fading from off the face of the earth. The efforts and failures of his ancestors will create in the citizen not only a reverence for them and their achievements, but also a desire and a determination to improve upon their methods, to work upon more advanced and progressive lines, and to finish in a better fashion what they had begun. Such is the beginning of true statesmanship and the formation of the loftiest ideals. It helps to evolve righteous government, to lay the foundation for true progress, and to produce the highest type of Americanism and good citizenship. And ever since the above was printed the Journal has, as our readers are well aware, endeavored in its feeble way to emphasize the ideas therein expressed. Therefore we rejoice at signs of progress. The work which has been undertaken by the Maine Research Club, to publish during the present year a school reader written by Maine authors about the past history of Maine for the use of Maine scholars in the schools of Maine, is strong evidence that a change for the better along these lines is surely coming. And this is strengthened by the fact that, standing behind these patriotic Maine women is their laudable effort in this behalf is Dr. Augustus O. Thomas, the superintendent of schools for the State of Maine. In a recent reference to this matter the Lewiston Journal says: In discussing this plan and the Research club book now in process of printing, Dr. Thomas said, recently: "It is one of the regrettable things that there is no really adequate history of Maine in existence. Really," went on Dr. Thomas, "there is no good published history of the state." This plan which the State superintendent has in view is to have pupils in the various schools search out, by their own efforts, important historical information in their own neighborhoods. He proposes to have the teachers assign to these pupils things to look up and write about. This will be a part of their regular course of instruction and each child will be ranked according to the work accomplished, as in all other studies. By having the boys and girls find by their own research and diligent effort the story of an old fort, or ancient house where some important event in the history of Maine took place, and then write it in their own language, from their own viewpoint and according to their own understanding, Dr. Thomas fells that they will get a better understanding of the true history of the state than in any other way. When these stories have been prepared and passed upon, they will be arranged and published in book form for school use. "It will be a step inspired by and additional to the work which the Maine Writer's Research club has undertaken, and as such will be of great value to the instructional work of Maine," said Dr. Thomas. Parenthetically we can state that we have confidence that the forthcoming volumes of Dr. Hatch's work, now being published by the Lewis Historical Publishing Co. of New York, which will be a complete history of our state from statehood to the present time, will be satisfactory to all who have long felt the need of what Dr. Thomas alludes to. Apropos hereto we quote from Honorable James Phinney Baxter, Maine's eminent historian (Address on Samuel Moody, Portland's first settler, June 16, 1916,) as follows: I have long contended that the pupil who first learns the history of this own town, and its place in the history of his state, is more likely to acquire a taste for historic knowledge,, than by the system of study which has so long prevailed, and which he too often considers the dryest and the most uninteresting of all his studies. This is the fault of the text book whose author lack imagination, and therefore fails to visualize the events of which he treats. Were the works of such authors avoided, no matter how high their reputation as scholars, the demand for more interesting books would no doubt result in a supply of them. 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