ABSTRACT
History is a subject particularly difficult to teach with understanding. One of the problems is the difficulty of conveying an adequate notion of time scale. Another problem is the interference between the historical concept and everyday ideas which have the same name. (This problem is of the same type as Fleshner encountered in the teaching of physics.) In addition, since language plays such an important part in history teaching, there is a particular danger of rote learning. The learning of strings of dates or names of kings and queens is a prime example of rote learning when one examines the nature of children’s concepts of time and royalty.
