The epochs of history
from which American schools must draw are chiefly those of the United
States and Great Britain. France, Germany, Italy, and Greece may
furnish some collateral matter, as the story of Tell, of Siegfried, of
Alaric, and of Ulysses; but some of the leading epochs must be those of
our own national history.
Has the _English-speaking race_ in North America passed through a
series of historical epochs which, on account of their moral-educative
worth, deserve to stand in the center of a common school course? Is
this history adapted to cultivate the highest moral and intellectual
qualities of children as they advance from year to year? There are
few, if any, single nations whose history could furnish a favorable
answer to this question. The English in America began their career so
late in the world's history and with such advantages of previous
European culture that several of the earlier historical epochs are not
represented in our country. But perhaps Great Britain and Europe will
furnish the earlier links of a chain whose later links were firmly
welded in America.
The _history of our country_ since the first settlements less than
three hundred years ago is by far the best epitome of the world's
progress in its later phases that the life of any nation presents.
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