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We may speak of two difficulties. The first concerns the enormous amount of historical material that exists. It is increased still more by the intermingling of legend with history and by the partial narratives of prejudiced writers. The legendary part may be taken up in the Story stage; and the evils of one-sided accounts are often balanced by the greater vigour and interest of the narrative, as in Macaulay's writings. The difficulty connected with the great amount of material can be solved by the selection (already largely made by the text-books) of the more important parts, that is, those facts of history that have the greatest influence on after times—"the points of vital growth and large connection" without which subsequent history cannot be properly understood.

The second difficulty has to do with deciding where to begin the teaching of history. There are two principles of teaching that will help to solve this difficulty: (1) The child learns by relating everything new to his present fund of experiences; (2) A child's notions grow more complex as his knowledge increases. To apply these, we must know the child's experiences and his present notions. We cannot assume that the present conditions of social life are known to the child through his experiences. Our social life is also too complex to be understood by him yet; he can understand an individual hero better than he can the complex idea of a nation. How many children would be able to begin a study of history by having, as one writer suggests, "a short series of lessons … to make some simple and fundamental historical ideas intelligible—a state, a nation, a dynasty, a monarch, a parliament, legislation, the administration of justice, taxes, civil and foreign war!" These are ideas far beyond the comprehension of the beginner. We must be guided, not by "what happens to be near the child in time and place, but by what lies near his interests." As Professor Bourne says: "it may be that mediæval man, because his characteristics belong to a simple type, is closer to the experience of a child than many a later hero." With older children it is more likely to be true that the life of history lies "in its personal connections with what is here and now and still alive with us"; with historic places and relics, etc., which make their appeal first through the senses; with institutions, such as trial by jury; with anniversaries and celebrations of great events which may be used to arouse interest in the history which they suggest and recall.

However, as McMurry points out, we are in a peculiarly favourable position in Canada, because we have in our own history, in the comparatively short time of 400 years, the development of a free and prosperous country from a state of wildness and savagery. The early stages of our history present those elements of life that appeal strongly to children—namely, Indians with all their ways of living and fighting, and the early settlers with their simpler problems and difficulties. The development of this simpler life to the more complex life of the present can be more readily understood by children as they follow up the changes that have taken place. (See McMurry, Special Method in History, pp. 26–30.) Of course, at every step appeal must be made to the experiences of children, as the teacher knows them. In Civics, however, the beginning must be made with conditions that exist to-day—schools, taxes, the policeman, the postmaster, etc. The beginning of the real teaching of history may then be made at the beginning of Canadian History, as this will enable the child to go gradually from the simple, or individual, to the complex, and will also allow the teacher to make use of whatever historical remains may be within reach.

[A] Raymont: Principles of Education