Book Description

Excerpt from Modern Americans: A Biographical School Reader for the Upper Grades Tell us about real folks. This is the request that comes to us again and again from children in the upper grades. In response to this appeal, the authors, in preparing Modern Americans, have attempted to give the pupils the worth-while things they like to read rather than the things adults think they ought to like. Those who have taught reading very long agree that the old time hero stories have always had a peculiar charm for pupils. But all the heroes did not live in olden times; they are with us today. Why, then, isn't it well to acquaint the children with present-day heroes? Young people in the upper grades are especially interested in the men and women who are actually doing things. They desire to study in school the persons they read about in the daily papers. Elihu Root recently said: It seems sometimes as if our people were interested in nothing but personalities. To bridge the gap between our schools and practical everyday life has become one of the chief concerns of the wide-awake teacher. Accordingly, in geography we are studying the industries about us In English, civics, and history we are devoting an increasing amount of time to a consideration of Current Events. All this is in the right direction; for, to create an interest in the men and women of the hour and the social activities of the day makes for an intelligent citizenship. Acquaint the people with the great men of any period and you have taught them the history of the period, says Carlyle. Know the past, if possible; know the present by all means. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.