He feels it an imposition that he should
be dragged around to such places when he cares nothing for them. His
evident boredom is pathetic, and he repeatedly says that he'd far rather
be visiting in the corner grocery back home, than to be spending his
time in the Vatican.
=Contrasts.=--In this, he speaks but the simple truth. In the grocery he
has comfort while, in the Vatican, he is in bondage. His ignorance of
art, architecture, history, and literature reduces him to thralldom in
any place that exemplifies these. In the grocery he has comfort because
he can have a share in the small talk and gossip that obtain there. His
companions speak his language and he feels himself to be one of them.
Were they, by any chance, to begin a discussion of history he would feel
himself ostracized and would leave them to their own devices. If they
would retain him as a companion they must keep within his range of
interests and thinking. To go outside his small circle is to offer an
affront. He cannot speak the language of history, or science, or art,
and so experiences a feeling of discomfort in any presence where this
language is spoken.
=History.=--In this concrete illustration we find ample justification
for the teaching of history in the schools. History is one of the large
strands in the web of life, and to neglect this study is to deny to the
pupil one of the elements of freedom.
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