EDITED BY HENRY SUZZALLO

PROFESSOR OI- THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION TEACHERS C JLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

THE T 3:AGHING OF CIVICS

BY

MABEL HILL

INSTRUCTOR IN HISTORY AND CIVICS

POST GRADUATE DEPARTMENT, DANA HALL SCHOOL

WELLESLEY, MASSACHUSETTS

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HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

BOSTON NEW YORK AND CHICAGO

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COPYRIGHT, I914, BY MABEL HILI, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

CAMBRIDGB . MASSACHUSETTS U . S . A

CONTENTS

Editor's Introduction ...••.* v

Part I The Problem of Civics Teaching

I. Civic Education in the Schools ... 3

II. Old and New Methods of Teaching Civics 9

III. Civics in Child Life 13

IV. Civics for Older Pupils 20

Part II Suggestions for the Teaching of Civics

V. The Function of the Suggestive Lessons

presented 33

VI. Suggestive Lessons 37

Outline 145

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EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

We have come at last to a sound notion of teach- ing civics in the schools. Long experience with traditional modes of instruction has indicated their failure, and teachers now turn to a more direct application of important principles of peda- gogical procedure long urged by the practical psychologist and recently verified by careful experimental work.

For a generation past the teaching of civics aimed at little more than the acquisition of \ knowledge about government. It was assumed that the school's function did not extend beyond an intellectual treatment of social and political welfare. The subject-matter was formal and necessarily barren, remote from ordinary hiunan interests, and more remote still from any con- cerns of children. In the earlier years it consisted of a study of the mechanics of government through analysis of the fundamental law as pro- vided by constitutions and charters. More re- cently the social functions of government have been given t&e chief place in school study, and political structure has been made secondary. On

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EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

the whole, the kind of information given under the latter regime is more useful and interesting than that required earlier, but it is still quite remote from the civic problems most likely to press themselves upon youth.

Persisting disappointment in the results of civics teaching has caused considerable experi- mentation, and out of these new failures and suc- cesses well-defined principles have been evolved. These constitute the standards for selecting con- crete materials for instruction, special methods of presentation, and modes of transition from one topic to another. These controlling principles or considerations it may be well to state.

(i) It is now clearly perceived that the initial point of departure must be a study of those par- ticular phases of our group life which fall well Within the intimate circle of the child's personal affairs. It is in the active concerns of child life that those habits of critical investigation and active cooperation, so important in mature civic life, are to be established. The opportunity for vital instruction is to be found in those activities of children which originate in their spontaneous interests — in their sociable play, in their group games, in their competitive athletics, in their student organizations, in their government of the

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EDITOR'S INTRGDUGTION

school grounds, and in their cooperative activities of every sort. Here the relations of individual participation and group cooperation, of social function and political control, are easily made clear, because they are seen in connection with interests and necessities immediately stirring in the lives of the children.

(2) Once the experiences of children have been fully utilized to develop better social attitudes and more competent cooperation in connection with their own vivid interests, the foundation for further growth is provided; the teacher has only to follow witlLpatience the gradually expanding civic relationsj)f^ children. The margins of the child^s life are always extending; he is constantly becoming aware of a larger world through the conversations of his family, the comments of his neighbors, and his daily readings. It is easy for the teacher to enrich the pupil's interest in the neighborhood's effort to maintain cleanliness and beauty, in the municipality's attempt to keep peace and order, and in the State's effort to regu- late industrial relations. If the teacher will only invoke it, the child's imderstanding of the need of collective action in his own small affairs can be made to interpret the larger group responsibili- ties of neighborhood and town. Comprehension

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EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

of his part in still larger units — in State, Nation, and world — remains as a natural later step.

(3) The teacher's task will neither begin nor end in mere intellectual appreciation of civic relations. The end of good teaching goes beyond understanding; it involves sensitiveness to obli-j gation and the development of a willingness and ability to act with other men for the common good. From the beginning to the end of teaching, the chief aim should be to get the child to perform his part in civic life. It will be a small and frag- mentary part at first, simply because life starts with few and small contacts. But whatever need the teacher can get the child to feel and under- stand, that need he must seek to realize. Action is the goal of civics teaching.

(4) Meanwhile it must not be forgotten that real activity is one of the best resources in the teaching of children. In the teaching of civics it is used both as end and as ways and means. The child who has tried to participate in any given situation will have a sense of reality about it that can never be had from conversations or books. He comes away from it with an accurate under- standing that indicates the meaning and value of details which otherwise would be dull and for- mal to him. His actions have pointed his mind so

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EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

as to observe pertinent truths, and he comes to the classroom ready to have his problems dis- cussed, his knowledge augmented, and his inten- tions better controlled. Because he has been participating in life itself, he will want to take an active part in every classroom activity which flows from it, — in discussion, reading, or inves- tigation at first hand.

(5) It is inevitable that a conception of civics teaching which makes action rather than know- ing the end of teaching will greatly enhance the educational value of all school activities outside the classroom; indeed, of all the child's institu- tional memberships outside the school. Home, playgroimd, and neighborhood life will be the laboratories where civic truths are to be experi- enced, learned, and tested out. The classroom exercise will occupy a supplementary if not a secondary position. It will be a formal meeting where children gather to discuss their social affairs, much as citizens go to a club or a town meeting. Here they will report their problems, exchange information, propose solutions, and assign parts, emphasizing the constant common obligation of each little citizen and designating the special committees with particular tasks. Throughout these stated classroom meetings, the

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EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

teacher will be the natural leader. Out of his superior wisdom he will stimulate and supervise the group, suggesting methods and appraising achievements.

To aid teachers in the application of these vital principles of the new teaching of civics, a volume of very concrete suggestions is here offered. It has been prepared by a teacher of unusual schol- arship in the command of materials needed for interesting and competent study, one whose in- sight into the mental life of children has been gained by actual contacts that make her psycho- logy and pedagogy sure. ,

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

I

THE PROBLEM OF CIVICS TEACHING

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

CIVIC EDUCATION IN THE SCHOOLS

The new humanities in college and university

The awakening of the civic conscience and its immediate materialization in the movement for social betterment has nowhere functioned with more permanent interest than in the work of the college and university. Through newly developed courses in "PoKtical and Social Science" it has been made possible for students to get a close view of the various ramifications of society. Twenty-five years ago it was almost impossible to find an opportunity in any institution of learn- ing to investigate social activities. In no other century has it been deemed necessary or expedi- ent for the great body of students at large to take into consideration the bases which go to make up society — the family, the home, the community, the city, the State, the Nation, each with its own several relationships with the other, and all with their connections with the evolution of civiliza-

:7tfe TEAcmN of civics

tion itself. President Woodrow Wilson well calls these essentials ''the new humanities/' With the introduction of a study of vital problems of the political and social order, a new interest, both himianitarian and philosophic, has been aroused, which exceeds any other academic interest ever presented in imdergraduate work.

It matters little what a college student decides to investigate along the lines of political and social science; whatever topic he takes for his first work he finds engrossingly^ absorbing. It may be the labor question, yet it often ends in a minute consideration of a detail of a larger subject; immigration, for illustration, embraces many phases of national life, any one of which needs concentrated attention, such as housing, sanitation, or rapid transportation. The point is, that the moment the student finds himself at work upon some one topic of human interest, all else becomes submerged in the problem which has been offered him for solution.

The need of civic ediication in elementary and secondary schools

The college and the university, however, are not the public schools. And the mind of the nation is not the college-bred mind. Rather, it is a

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CIVIC EDUCATION IN THE SCHOOLS

mental product developed from elementary edu- cation, supplemented in part by the secondary schools, and by the ever-increasing knowledge accumulated from daily experience.

If we are to make sure that the mind of the public is growing commensurately with the col- lege mind of the minority^f the nation at large is to enter upon a civic awakening, and the major- ity is to take part in the betterment movement, as a democratic whole should take part, it be- hooves the public school world to develop a course in civics which in a measure will corre- spond to the college courses in political and social science.

The education of the individual for himself alone has had its day; a day that saw great advancement and that was sufficient for its gen- eration. Not only were the tools of education generously meted out to all alike, through our, great public school system, but to a certain extent the treasures of the liberal arts and the knowledge of the sciences were shared. Music* and drawing, history and geography, literature and oratory, were taught in the public schools that the soul of youth might have the largest inspiration. This individualistic education, how- ever, has not wrought the miracle of good citizen- s'

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

ship. Individualism has neglected the principles of reciprocity, comradeship, and fellowship. Too much emphasis cannot be laid upon the need for every pupil in school to become proficient and effi- cient with the tools of education. But, after all, reading, writing, spelling, and number work are tools and tools only. Moreover, the acquisition of the knowledge of literature and history, the knowl- edge of scientific facts concerning the world, are not of necessity in themselves material which goes toward the making of that one conditioned good in the universe, the principle of good will. Already the demand that education shall fit a youth for the general welfare or common good of a community is bringing about a reorganiza- tion of school life. The rural school looks toward a public school system which shall train the chil- dren for agriculture. In industrial centers trade schools are developing as rapidly as States and municipalities can appropriate money for them. But whether education is to fit a man for a life in the country or for one in factories and shops, he must be trained in citizenship in order to take part in either phase of social life. In order to foster in- telligence in civic life there should be created intel- ligent sympathy with it, as well as a knowledge of civic interests themselves. Civic activities must

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CIVIC EDUCATION IN THE SCHOOLS

be talked about, read about. The younger gen- eration must be made to think along the lines of civic betterment. From the kindergarten to the university there Jias been evolved a habit of reading.' Every one reads* some thing — the sign- boards, bulletin boards, newspapers, magazines, books. In like manner a habit of mind should be developed to read and talk and think in civic terms anent civic ideals. If our National Govern- ment should undertake to demand any one course of study in the immediate future of the public school work, it would do well to insist that in every school in every town iiLeyeryState there be taught the relationship of man to civic life and man's obligation to his home, to his neighbor-, hood, and to his country. Could this be brought about the results would be strikingly marked. Communities would develop the spirit of good will to so large ah extent that the nation would become altogether different from any other nation on the earth.

Such a civic crusade in the schools will mean more money. But there can be no better use of the increasing wealth of the country than to edu- cate future citizens in civic activity. Good citi- zenship cannot be reached through glittering *- generaHties as to loyalty to country. The growth

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- THE TEACHING OF CIVICS ^

of a better civic life will come slowly through a knowledge of facts as to how the business of a municipality or other community is run — an active cooperation whenever the opportunity offers itself. The man who knows what the Pure Food Laws mean, and is alive to the enforcement of these statutes, will if need be exert himself to see that they are executed. The old bliss in igno- rance may do for the individuahs tic person. The citizen belonging to the era of collectivism sees, feels, and acts for the common good.

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II

OLD AND NEW METHODS OF TEACHING

CIVICS

The most significant change in the presentation of material in civics classes lies in the attempt to readjust the approach to the study of govern- ment, from theory and definition to practical illustrations, as working out in actual life in the environment of the pupils. It is a concession that "teaching from the known to the unknown'^ is no pedagogical aphorism, but sound judgment.

The old method

The old method, found in every textbook upon government, presented historical data — the story of the growth of the government, accom- panied by definitions of terms and phrases which had in themselves developed through the passage of years. Oftentimes these same textbooks gave pages and pages to the discussion of the machin- ery of government rather than to any active work done by the government. The pupils who studied these same textbooks were expected to know the

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THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

definitions "by heart," although any practical application was seldom asked.

If one reads the dreary array of words anent the terms which included the process of impeach- ment, which were among the so-called important paragraphs which all pupils should know, they proved dreary words only. There was no mental picture of a real impeachment! No personaHty of the one impeached. The grind of teaching such subject-matter was nothing to the grind of learn- ing it. Yet teacher and child alike went through the act of " give and take " in definition and expla- nation without one serious moment of comment upon the practicability of the topic under consid- eration. "Clause 2, section 2," which covers the qualifications of a Congressman, only becomes vital and of any possible use when we begin to discuss our own district's appointee to Congress. Then our class rallies to the "legislative require- ments" with interest. Is Mr. K. eligible? How old is he? Was he a resident of the State? — and so on. The theory and the facts coincide for the time being. The facts of the machinery of govern- ment in one particular case are functioning. That is all. And that is all that could possibly be expected from the study of machinery in the classroom.

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METHODS OF TEACHING CIVICS

Investigations and reports on civic teaching

Very recently the American Political Science Association has appointed a Committee of Seven to investigate the work of teachers who have already begim the crusade of teaching better citizenship in the schools. This committee will prepare and publish a full syllabus of its ideas and ideals in the near future. The National Munici- pal League is also at work upon a similar in- vestigation with the intention of publishing its information at a later date. Many less noted as- sociations that are devoting themselves to sec- tional interests are equally alive to this new sub- ject of investigation, and reports and syllabi are constantly appearing, each bearing the hallmark of interest and enthusiasm, even if no association as yet has offered a perfectly satisfactory outline for a program of work.

In the Report of the Committee of Eight of the American Historical Association, delivered in print through Charles Scribner's Sons' in 1910, the committee felt impelled to add a brief syllabus in civics, although their field of investigation was history per se. In their brief summary of what should be undertaken in the elementary schools they have expressed the fast-spreading belief that

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THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

sociology in some form should permeate the entire life of the child. To quote in part: —

The special aim in teaching civics, therefore, should be to help the child realize himself as a mem- ber of each political group that does work for him. It should help him to realize as concretely and vividly as possible: —

1. What the most important things are that are done for its members by each group.

2. That there is a division of labor among groups of town, city, State, Nation, each in the main doing the work that is needed by its own mem- bers.

3. The general way in which the members of each group do their work.

4. That there should be a reciprocal exchange,* honest service for honest support, between members of each group — " the pubHc " and the smaller number of members — " the office- holders" — who are the chosen to have special charge of the work of the group. ^

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CIVICS EST CHILD LIFE

As one follows the outlines as suggested by the Committee of Eight of the American Historical Association, he finds ample opportunity to bring before the class not only the "groups" that repre- sent actual working political activities, but much social work that is being accomplished directly imder the eyes of the children, and which, when once brought to their attention as matters to think about, will furnish admirable lessons in good will and social service. How can little chil- dren take part in the better citizenship movement may be asked of the little "junior citizens " them- selves. If each day this question is persistently discussed, and the ideals of active good citizen- ship are shown the child, surely he will at least be a knowing boy and later a knowing man, even if he does not become a willing man. The habits of mind, however, will have been so de^^^d_and broadened by the constant social ^iidpolitical-. interests that consciously orunconsciouslv hejadlL, taEe part in the world movement for good, and

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THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

cooperate at least in promoting the general wel- fare of the environment in which he lives. How can the small boy in the first primary grade help? He can help positively and negatively. He can help keep the streets clean and the garden in his home attractive. He can refrain from throwing papers gTwj_Jniit. fikirifi rarf^lpRsly on the street. He can_telLthe_exact trutbJx>-gupolic-eman. He can deny himself the_spQrLof_throwmg_stQnes at birds or lamp-posts. This very small boy is said to be a menace to society by some people. The teaching of better citizenship should make it possible to alter such a stigma upon a child of seven.

Civics in the home

Childrenjeam^to do things by doing. So, too, they learn to think things by practice in thinking. There are many things to think. about and prac- tice for the children of seven. They can help in the home by obedience andjgatience, by good manners and prompt action when calJedL upon jpr service. In the home there is the health^feyery one to be thought about. If littlechildren learned to help in no other way, their assistance in the crusade against flies and possible germs will mean real service. In the schoolroom orderliness and

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CIVICS IN CHILD LIFE

neatness, promptness and willingness, are small but important obligations which can establish good citizenship principles for later business in larger relations. These simple but most essential habits of thinking and practice are the civic ties which can be best developed with very little children. Patriotism may come to them in momentary emotion, when patriotic songs are sung, when the flag drill takes place, and when beautiful memory gems are repeated by older pupils and teachers. Stories and pictures have great influence without doubt in shaping the character which stands for civic virtue, but in the last analysis it is the home and its ideals which foster the first seeds of true knowledge, unselfish service to one's family and town and State. One cannot have perfect citizenship without perfect citizens.

The kindergarten has made much of family ties and friendships, especially at Thanksgiving time and Christmas. But in the formative years of the school it is well to emphasize the fundamentals of society not only twice in the year, but during every day in the year. The duties and obligations of the members of the family, the authority and sacrifice of the parents and obedience and helpful- ness of children, should be subjects of frequent

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THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

discussion. Where homes are beautiful, children should be taught to appreciate them. Where for- tune has not been so kind, it is well that they should be instructed in the ideals and realities of the happiest and noblest family relationships in order that they may look forward to such homes later in their lives.

The child who has the blessing of parents should be made to look upon the fatherhood and motherhood which he enjoys as gifts from God. Our American children have been allowed to think too much of themselves as "the gifts"! Ancestral worship will not come amiss in our adoption of Oriental fashions. What is a home to the child of sorrow over its first broken doll if there be no mother to help sympathize; or a father to forgive the boy's first broken "toy com- mandment"?

Again, the conjunctive nature of the child is first stirred into rich response by the relationship with "cousins," first, second, and once removed. These are family ties, important and of vast influence in shaping the larger interests of chil- dren. So, too, are our talks relating to "neigh- bors," and to those who are in pain or who suffer from age or poverty. As the school and home shape the child's mind in looking at and dwelling

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CIVICS IN CHILD LIFE

upon these conditions, so that mind will develop in after years.

" He spelled all the words in the lesson! " That is a meritorious record to take home — to a "mother." But there will be no tears in the mother's eyes. If the record comes, however, ''Tom stayed on his way home from school to play with Dick, the lame boy at the corner," there is reason for the mother's heart to quicken.

Civics on the playground

The boy should spell correctly. It is worth more to the parent, however, to learn that he is thinking of others in his playtime than that he takes great pride in that which is a part of the daily program. In school of all places the thought of friendship-making and of comradeship and service can be guided with the surest result. The playground movement is furthering to a large degree the idea of fellowship. The old order of things in the schoolroom persists in a discipline which was devised to aid in individualism. It will take a long time to bring about a classroom order which shall stand behind collectivism. In the interim, however, fortunately, the supervisors of playgrounds and recreation centers are evolving ideas which shall mean "fair play," team work

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THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

that "plays up to the game," and all such splen- did cooperative ideals that mean life, society, highest civilization. On the playground the boy and girl learn "ego" by gaining a knowledge of "alter." The individual does not lose himself in these new relations. He simply becomes better acquainted with his own possibilities. At the same time, while playing with others he becomes a part of the whole with the spirit of sacrifice for the good of the whole. The ideas of leadership which develop on the playgrounds, the necessary government which grows out of groups playing together, the ideals of loyalty to the group, are basic. They represent in the child-world what organized society means in the adult relationships of life.

Civics in neighborhood life

Fellowship on the playground will invariably mean helpfulness and interest in the neighbor- hood. Community laws will be observed once they are made to mean that which a child can understand. "Trespassing oiff or on goals" will be steps toward trespass laws on others' property. Any neighborhood will feel the effect of organized play and supervision where the center has been doing its work for a year or two. Actual relations

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CIVICS IN CHILD LIFE

in a community for children cannot, of course, be very positive. Rather the principles should be enforced of letting one's neighbors live their lives without interference. But, after all, that is not quite enough to teach children. Readiness to help others may extend beyond the family do- main. Now and then to do an errand for a neighbor, to help in actual work, to offer sym- pathy, even to rejoice with one's neighbor, these are little acts which are seeds sown. The harvest will surprise the growing child himself. Each little "junior citizen" will keep his eyes open in the neighborhood. He will look at the environ- ment as if it were his. What goes wrong he will note and report at home; what goes well will in- terest him and satisfy him in his own curious, childish way. As soon as he knows that his own and his family welfare depend upon the health and happiness of the neighborhood's health and happiness, he will feel a small but earnest share in the life.

IV

CIVICS FOR OLDER PUPILS

The extension of civic interests

The pupils in the older grades who study civics may be permitted to go beyond the limitations of life in home and school and community. All about the daily life of city children are mimicipal activities full of significant interest. The boy knows intimately the work of the police and fire departments. He watches the construction of sewers and streets. He is old enough to under- stand the superintendency of the school depart- ment, and to begin to value its generous plans for his playmates and himself. Many months of the year he is enjoying the parks and playgrounds controlled by the city. His teacher should bring before his attention the social and humanita- rian benefits that accrue from such municipal domain.

Local points of attack

In the tiny hamlet where but a dozen children are gathered together and taught in a little school,

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CIVICS FOR OLDER PUPILS

or where the same children are carried to a con- solidated school at a center, in either case, as well as in the larger wards of a great city, this vivify- ing of life in its conjunctive relationship is the important and pleasurable task for the teacher of socialized civics. From the outset the teacher realizes that not only are there the local points of attack to make with the work of the Commission of Charity, or the Board of Health, or other muni- cipal departments, but national and state rela- tionships are also in the environment to explain and to discuss and to give reason for apprecia- tion. The child in the city school may well be shown exhibits of the difference between a clean and an unclean market. And from such an illus- tration as a basis to work, the splendid advance made by our Government in Pure Food Laws may be explained to any child a dozen years old. The post-office service in urban and rural dis- tricts is another national department of govern- ment which can be studied in the schools of town or city alike. Immigration is a subject that every- where touches the school in city or country.

Converting intelligence into will

After the teacher has mastered the matter of civics per se^ after she has been able to present in

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THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

the classroom the activities of local and federal and state governments, and brought before the child's mind the needs of our country along the expansion of social and political life, — after she has presented the knowledge itself, comes the far greater task of making sure that this newly acquired intelligence has been so absorbed that it gives an impulse to the will of the child, which shall become active. To inspire patriotism which will mean wisdom in looking at political efficiency and far-reaching utility for all concerned — that is another matter. Yet that is the point of attack. It matters little whether a boy knows very much about our treaty-making, if he has no sound prin- ciple in regard to our duty in keeping our word with nations with whom we are making treaties. It is of little importance whether a boy under- stands the organization of the police department unless he appreciates the difference between a police force which takes graft and bribes and which neglects its duty, and one which maintains its honesty and efficiency even when tempted by corrupt men. All the knowledge of political life and its machinery, and the activities which are opening up our country and broadening its in- fluence and power, will go for worse than naught unless splendid principles are laid down which

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CIVICS FOR OLDER PUPILS

show why government of the people and for the people and by the people should be a govern- ment of individual men who are honest, who are magnanimous, and who are ready to serve, loyally, devotedly, sacrificially.

In concrete explanation of this belief in the usefulness of citizenship, three elements go far toward making the good citizen in the commu- nity in which he lives. He is a neighbor as well as a family man. Those relationships go without saying. We appreciate the citizen who is true to the family ties and to his community as friend. But he has a political relationship that comes to him with his franchise and his majority. He is a voter. He may be called upon in the courts as a juryman, and he may offer himself or at times be impressed into the service of the militia. These citizenship relations should be explained and interpreted to the children, especially to the boys, with the greatest care. There lies behind the pageantry of the militia great service; there Hes behind the jury box tragedy as well as law; there lies in the ballot box a term of honest public efficiency or a term or more of ill-gotten gains and corruption.

A preparation for social and political duties includes the constant teaching of. ethics. The

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

future health, moral health in politics and there- fore in the nation, lies in the hollow of the hand of education. She is a giant creature. She has immense power for good or bad; this Education with a head of Wisdom and a frame of Truth and a heart of Happiness. But heart and head and frame together must so be utilized through judi- cious and continual exercise that a resultant shall be felt in good will. To be exact and specific, the lawless boy should become mannerly in carriage and dress. He will not spit on the sidewalks; he will not throw stones; he will not worry the cat; he will not break lamp-posts. Moreover, he will be positive and not simply negative, for he will help a situation when he sees a need. If some- body's ash barrels have been left out or forgotten and the street is made unsightly, the boy will take pleasure in rolling the barrels into the yard or the alley. That will illustrate active service. The boy who begins by helping goes through life with ready, intelligent hands. Then this same Education will stimulate mental fiber. The boy will think "good citizenship " in larger terms than he would have if it had not been discussed in home and at school. He will note money appro- priations and he will tg^lk about the use of the money. He will congratulate the city upon its

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CIVICS FOR OLDER PUPILS

development or be troubled that the money has not seemed to be spent wisely or well. 'S^

And the joy that comes always from service and intelligence will be an immediate product of his helpfulness and his growing ideas. His moral fiber will have been increased; his moral nature, strengthened. Having become interested, he will have become active, and hence, unless actually degenerate, he will be in the future ^^ willing for good:' /

Supplementing texts with other materials

There are recent textbooks which will aid the teacher largely in acquiring general information concerning municipal activities. But no one textbook can offer the precise material necessary to fit the occasion of any one school environ- ment. Hence the local publications, from the officials who have the expenditure of money for the city or town, are the next most helpful data. For instance, the freshly printed report of the School Committee, oftentimes a real essay upon furthering education, is one of the necessary reports we mean. So, too, the reports of the Street Department, of the Boards of Health and Charity, and so on, every one of which is filled full of *'dry statistics" if one so looks upon the

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THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

printed matter, or filled with data alive with personal interest to every taxpayer and taxpay- er's child, who is reaping the benefit of such expenditures and plans for future outlay.

For state and national information there are similar reports. If the boys undertake to carry on the correspondence with the state and national departments in this work, it aids in their letter- writing and in the art of graciousness, for letters must be courteous and gratefully expressed if an- swers are to be insured and helpfulness gained.

Collecting materials as a service to the school

Little by little the children will get together data for their investigation. Magazine articles will be brought to the class. The World^s Work is one of the four or five good monthlies, teem- ing with information concerning these vital problem-lessons.

Here the Httle girls' fingers are useful. These articles should be preserved, and it will help if, instead of "making boxes in the manual training class," the girls learn to cut out magazine articles and bind them and mark them in orderly fashion.

Thirty children in a class of social cooperation or civics ! Three articles a year. That would not be too much to expect from each boy and girl.

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CIVICS FOR OLDER PUPILS

And what will have occurred? Ninety well- bound sketches put into shape for reference for the second year's class that will enter as the first class goes on into the next grade. This coopera- tion, this leaving a permanent contribution behind, may have its own influence upon the class as well as the spiritual possession of subject- matter which the class takes with it.

What with magazine sketches and daily news- paper cuttings, with reference books and *4ast reports," the work will progress. The collection of pictures is one that aids in vitalizing the work. Some few children may wish to keep their own collections of "present-day statesmen,'' or "big constructions," or illustrations of work done in any one department. But we have found that a general book for all the pictures collected has in it an element of comradeship that is good for the class, and leaves, as also in the case of the bound magazine articles, a permanent influence, mate- rially and spiritually, in the room. Too much of either at present cannot be developed. Thus, beginning at an early age to give to an alma mater, it should foster an attitude of mind that will eventually mean a larger appreciation of the great alma mater — modern public school edu- cation — an appreciation which will lead to

27

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

greater appropriations of money for the teaching force, and to the further development of present ideals for communities, which now are suffering from inability to meet practical plans as well as ideals of the most advanced educators.

Before our schools can command the enormous sums of money now spent upon the armaments for war, education must prove itself as loyal and useful to humanity as have the armies of the nation. We believe that the time is not far removed when such an attitude will have been reached by the teaching force and the pupils themselves. Then and then only shall we see the flag with the white band floating over our school- houses by the authority of the United States.

Intelligence anent government; service in civic relations; loyalty to national ideas; a patriotism which means to live for one's city and State and Nation; that state of mind and that only will make for good will.

The teacher* s method of cooperation

A serious challenge has been thrown down by the leaders of social betterment; this challenge the public school teacher meets in undertaking to aid in the advance of the knowledge of economic and political and social science. From the outset

28

CIVICS FOR OLDER PUPILS

teachers have been attempting to interest the pupils in the subject, and to construct out of the many plans now actively offered a working basis for civic study well adapted to elementary and secondary school needs. The civic movement among teachers has come to stay, and it will stay because the teacher has awakened to the dignity as well as to the duty which she holds in shaping the citizens of our nation.

At the outset the teacher of civics will need, not so great knowledge as earnest enthusiasm and willing cooperation. She will be an inter- preter and not a definer of facts. The class will bring data to her; with her superior mind and larger experience she will be a leader or guide, resolving the material into parts of importance. She will share her knowledge with the pupil, gaining knowledge also through the pupils' inves- tigations. She will not give them commands what not to find and what not to look for; it will be her mission after data have been discovered to differentiate which is worthy and which for the special point in hand is unnecessary.

Could anything be more inspiring for the really eager teacher than such a new method of teach- ing and studying ! Cooperation in the schoolroom would do away with so-called discipline to a large

29

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

degree. Exchange of personal investigations in the class will lead to a new spirit of fellowship that before another generation will be felt in a larger field of service after school days are over. This fellowship will be felt in the family and in the neighborhood; it will not only introduce a new and free relationship between teacher and pupil because of cooperation, but it will establish habits of investigation and discussion. The teacher and pupil would have to meet on the same plane of daily investigation.

II

SUGGESTIONS FOR THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

THE FUNCTION OF THE SUGGESTIVE LESSONS PRESENTED

The aim of this manual is to show the need of teaching civics in elementary and secondary schools, and to present a method which appeals to the pupiFs mind and which at the same time functions in the activity of the pupil. The sug- gestive lessons are meant to create an intelligent interest in the agencies that exist in every com- munity to promote the welfare and social better- ment of its citizens. Moreover, the purpose of the book goes further, and presents the idea of good citizenship as something in which every child and every young man and woman may and should take part actively. Cooperation is the keynote in these suggestive lessons.

The nature of the topics chosen

The subjects chosen for discussion refer to municipal and state and federal government agencies, which for the most part are in evidence constantly, either before one^s very eyes or in

33

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

current conversation through the newspapers and magazines. Public health, public recreation, and public utilities are part of daily life in every community. So, too, are such agencies as em- ployees of the Post-Office Department and of the Agricultural Department. Supervision of pure foods and pure drugs has its power through state and national authority. Immigration and natu- ralization touch every community. In fact, the world enters every home through local interest. Many important topics concerning government activities have had to be treated very briefly or omitted altogether from lack of space between the covers of this book.

Timeliness in their use

These lessons are not designed to meet the needs of any one or two grades. On the contrary, the book is meant to present suggestions to teach- ers of all grades and to persons who are interested in furthering good citizenship through social set- tlements and civic clubs. The successful method of teaching civics lies in its specific and practical appeal to the students. An immediate issue aris- ing gives immediate occasion for presentation of the subject. For instance, when a class is study- ing connnunity health, if a disastrous conflagra-

34

FUNCTION OF SUGGESTIVE LESSONS

tion should occur in the community, the wise teacher should set aside the day's lesson in health, and at once discuss the matter of a city's protec- tion against fire. Or if the newspapers should announce that an ambassador had been recalled, or a minister of the legation dismissed, the teacher should leave the allotted subject under discussion and discuss our international relationships under the control of the federal Department of State. Elasticity of method is necessary in presenting civic topics because civics at best is but a presen- tation of human welfare in its manifold workings through local and national authority.

The use of digests and summaries

In spite of the plea for elasticity and originality in teaching civics, the group of lessons which fol- low, if taught with intelligence and enthusiasm, offer a method which will prove effective and which will function in cooperation. The black- board digest, which is suggested as the means of organizing general information, will focus the ideas of the pupils. Moreover, it offers opportu- nity for a composite piece of work upon which all minds may concentrate, children and teacher alike. Sight as well as sound joins with thought. The oral or written resumes which finally serve

35

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

as class recitations, after the teachers have tabu- lated on the blackboard all the data, do not need to be wholly confined to the topics connected. Such summaries should if possible cover a wider range of material gathered by the children from reference books and sight-seeing. But for class- work, while material is being organized, the blackboard digest is invaluable. However, digest and summaries together would be of little actual value in furthering real citizenship if to the knowl- edge itself were not added the good will of the class. Actual cooperation with every agency in the community must be the aim of the work to be accomplished by the teacher and pupils by this group of topical lessons.

Because health in the community is of great importance, and because it touches the life in the home, the school, and the neighborhood at the same time, the agencies at work to preserve health and to prevent disease offer very vital lessons for discussion at the outset. Each home, each com- munity, each city and State, has its own peculiar problems connected with the subject of health, and these should be dealt with specifically by the teacher.

VI

SUGGESTIVE LESSONS ^

I. Community health

Introductory discussion

The teacher, in order to interest all the class in the subjects, opens the discussion with the follow- ing questions or similar ones: Why are all children vaccinated who attend the public schools? What is an epidemic? What are contagious diseases? Why are children removed from the school when members of the family have been exposed to con- tagious diseases? What is meant by quarantine? What precautions are sometimes used to prevent the spread of disease, besides the quarantine of the person? When is fumigation necessary? Have any of you in your homes had to call upon the Board of Health? Why should notices be posted by the Board of Health when members of a house- hold have contagious disease?

The teacher, having made a point of contact between the children and their home experience^

37

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

may organize the material upon the blackboard in the form of a digest.

TOPICS FOR THE BLACKBOARD

_X4) What the community does to take care of its health.

Inspection of water and sewerage; care of waste, especially of garbage and household rubbish; inspec- tion of drainage, plumbing, pubHc and private sani- tation; inspection of tenement houses, barns, out- houses, shops, railroad stations, stores, factories, electric cars, schools, pubHc buildings. Investigation of public and private complaints; orders for quaran- tine in contagious diseases; orders for fumigation; inspection of milk and food supplies, and of farmers' products brought to market; establishment of labo- ratories to analyze water supplies, dairy supplies; study of germ-culture for the immediate cure of dis- eases and for the prevention of diseases; supply of vaccine, antitoxin, and antidotes; appointments of city physicians (one or more) ; cooperation with city hospitals and institutions; drug supplies and medical supervision in schools.

The discussion of these topics will not only enlarge the general information of all the members of the class, but greatly increase their appreciation of social justice. That a community is willing to appropriate and spend money to protect its individuals because they cannot protect themselves becomes a very live subject for pupils to think about.

38

COMMUNITY HEALTH

(B) How the children can help the community take care of its health.

This material maybe grouped under three heads: — (i) Health in the Home. Physical health; fresh air at night in the sleeping-rooms; moderate exercise during the day; nourishing food, as far as possible; knowledge of the way to eat and when to eat; plenty of fresh water; sufficient manual labor; frequent baths (hot for cleanliness, cold for vigor) ; aired and clean clothing; special care of hair, teeth, and nails.

(2) Cleanliness in and about the House. Clean floors, windows, and furnishings; fresh air in the house; burn papers and all refuse as far as possible; full flush of water in closets; frequent use of disinfect- ants; special care of refrigerators, bread jars, milk bottles; personal inspection of sink drains, removal of garbage and ashes; keep house free from fli<S (most important — explain why), care of gardens and yards.

This group of topics (2) should make an appeal to all children. The home should feel the reaction, for a while at least. Doubtless the refrigerators and bread jars will be inspected by the girls, and the boys will ransack barns and outhouses. If these laws of health are taught in the schoolroom, the children will soon be able to carry into their homes much valuable knowledge, especially when the parents are foreign- born.

(3) Cooperation with City. Keeping health ordi- nances; such as, not to spit in public places or on sidewalks; not to neglect fumigation when necessary;

39

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

not to forget to notify the Board of Health when un- sanitary conditions exist; not to neglect to notify them when diseases develop that are contagious. (Examine city Board of Health Regulations.)

Further discussion

Next show the necessity for a Board of Health in cities in order to protect the health of the many who cannot take care of themselves because of the con- gested conditions of the city. These data can be obtained by the teacher from the Reports of the Board of Health. Where many copies of the Reports can be secured, the children will find much that is new and vital in them as they are allowed to read them under guidance and gather their own fresh information.

(C) The Municipal Board of Health.

(i) Appointed by Mayor or Commission of the city. Three, five or seven persons on Board. (2) Manage- ment. Appoint inspectors, grant licenses, investigate menacing conditions, employ clerks and workmen, responsible for finances. (3) How municipal depart- ments cooperate with the Board of Health. Police Department: Careful watch over tenement houses where disease may spread; immediate notification of the Board of Health of unsanitary conditions. Street Department: Prevents disease by street cleaning; flooding the streets in crowded quarters to improve the air and aid in the prevention of summer epidem-

40

COMMUNITY HEALTH

ics; in winter, sidewalks sanded to prevent accidents. Water Board: Careful watch of disturbances in water supply which might menace its purity. Sewer De- partment: Careful oversight of drainage in houses. Charity Department: City dispensaries, city physi- cians, district nurses, hospitals, outdoor relief, in- door relief. School Department: Notification of Board of Health of all symptoms of contagious diseases in the schoolroom; appointment of school physicians and school nurses.

{D) How the State and the Federal Governments aid.

The teacher will have to explain that oftentimes a community by itself cannot accomplish the wisest or best kind of sanitation without cooperation from the State. Such questions as the following will lead directly to this later development of the digest: —

If a scarlet fever epidemic broke out in the next city, would there be any risk to our community from riding in the electric cars? In what other ways might the fever spread into our town? If the water supply in the next community came from the same source as ours and we had typhoid fever in the city, could the next town take any precautions against risks? If the milk supply of our city came from farms in another State, what ought there to be to protect a community against an epidemic that could be brought through the milk supply?

Such questions will lead the class to know that a State needs to make and enforce laws which will pro-

41

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

tect people living in one city close to another, or in one State that joins another. The topics will take the form of these: —

The milk supply. The water supply. Pure food. Inspection of fresh meat, vegetables, fruits, and all foods in storage. Pure drugs and medicines. Tobacco and alcoholic liquors. The inspection of markets, groceries, bakeries, as well as of barber shops and bathhouses. Housing laws for health. Labor laws for women and children. The Federal Bureau for Child Welfare. Government inspection of vessels at ports of entry. Quarantine stations.

SPECIAL TOPICS

During one of the lessons, the subject of tubercu- losis will naturally come up. The teacher may make a special investigation of tuberculosis in the com- munity, if there be need of such. In any case, all children should be taught certain specific precautions. They will see at once that there should be insistence regarding outdoor air for the patients; that all cloths used in connection with the disease should be burned; and that if possible the patient should be isolated from the sleeping-rooms of others. The children will see the need of exercise in moderation, and short rests between work and before eating. As to the diet of the invalid, the fact that doctors always order milk and fresh eggs in abundance should be emphasized. In some cities the teacher will be able to invite lec- turers to speak before the class, and oftentimes an

42

COMMUNITY HEALTH

exhibit for anti-tuberculosis knowledge provided by the city or the State or a society will add great interest to the children's knowledge of the move- ment.

During these lessons the teacher will find occasion to write on the blackboard other rules which will help in preserving health. She may, if she teaches in a crowded tenement district, explain to the little girls in the class that babies should be washed daily; that they should sleep alone; that they need a great deal of fresh air; and that babies should not be weaned in hot weather. She can tell the little girls that in sum- mer babies should be dressed in thin cotton clothes instead of woolen, and that when they cry they are not always hungry, and that babies should be nursed regularly, and not when they cry.

Every community has its own special needs and interests. |These offer themselves for special investi- gation, and the teacher will use them with discretion as they appear before the public mind.

HELPFUL READINGS

See Reports of Municipal Boards of Health, Reports of

State Boards of Health. The Gulick Hygiene Series, Book Three {Town and City^

by Frances Gulick Jewett). Ginn & Co., Boston. Arthur W. Dunn, Community and the Citizen. D. C.

Heath & Co., Boston. Mabel Hill, Lessons for Junior Citizens. Ginn & Co.,

Boston.

43

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

S. H. Adams, The Health Master. Houghton Mifflin Co.,

Boston. Hollis Godfrey, The Health of the City. Houghton Mifflin

Co., Boston. Richmond and Wallach, Good Citizenship. American Book

Co., New York. Meyer Bloomfield, City Health, The Civic Reader for New

Americans. American Book Co., New York. William B. Guitteau, Government and Politics in the United

States, and Preparing for Citizenship. Houghton

Mifflin Co., Boston.

44

PROTECTION OF LIFE AND PROPERTY

2. Protection of life and property

Introductory discussion

The Board of Police and its agencies and activi- ties open up a fresh field of inquiry in which the teacher will find an immediate response from the class. The work of the police should be ap- proached from its protective and preventive lines of activities, rather than from its criminal and punitive work. And the responsibility of the Fire Department is of equal interest as well as impor- tance. These lessons which discuss the necessary protection of cities afford a kind of hero worship. The teacher cannot impress upon children too forcibly the willing sacrifice in the daily routine of men who have chosen for their calling work which offers danger and possible death.

These lessons may be organized with questions touching the child's own experience: Why does the policeman stand at street corners? What kind of people have you seen him help? If you were lost, should you try to find a policeman? Why? If a suspicious character were on the street, what would the policeman do? If he found a boy abusing a dog, what would happen? Or a teamster, ill-treating a horse? Why are police-

45

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

men stationed at the gates of ball games, circuses, theaters? When and why are special policemen appointed? Should you feel as safe at night if there were no policeman on the beat about your streets? When you go away in sunmier and leave your house empty, are you sure that the patrol- man will guard it? These questions will be an- swered so directly that the blackboard digest will develop at once, and the data will appear as fol- lows:

TOPICS FOR THE BLACKBOARD (A) Guardians of Municipal Life.

(i) The Police: By day and by night. Patrol streets; watch suspicious characters; direct strangers; assist old people and little children; protect property; enforce laws; prevent cruelty to animals and possible accidents; break up riots, strikes, and criminal pro- ceedings; maintain order at ball games, parades, circuses, and in crowds; arrest disorderly persons; disperse loiterers; break up gangs; inspect empty houses and dark alleys; investigate smoke; assist fire- men at fires; cooperate with the Street and Health Departments; look up cases of poverty for the Char- ity Department.

(2) The Fire Department.

Duties of the permanent firemen. To live at the engine house; to care for horses, apparatus, harnesses, hose, engines, stables, dormitories^ firemen's suitSj

46

PROTECTION OF LIFE AND PROPERTY

rubber blankets, ladders. On active service. To obey orders, act instantly, fear nothing, forget self. Dangerous centers. Large hotels, factories, mills, big packing-houses on wharves, crowded tenement quar- ters in thickly settled districts, public schools, busi- ness houses, and big shops, state institutions.

There may be personal reminiscences of fires to illustrate the need in each community. The story of heroic firemen conveys a lesson which is helpful to impress the children with their own responsibility. The teacher may read aloud a stirring fire story from one of Jacob Riis's books and one of his fine police- man's stories.

{B) How the children can cooperate in protecting the city.

(These "don'ts" will naturally originate in the minds of the children as a result of the foregoing lessons :)

Don't fight. Don't trespass on other people's property. Don't play "truant. Don't make unneces- sary noise. Don't mark buildings. Don't take things that belong to others. Don't abuse animals. Don't go with gangs of boys who do wrong. Don't set brush fires without permission. Don't play with matches or lamps. Don't leave camp-fires in the woods. Don't be careless with kerosene or gasoline. Don't ring in false alarms. Don't get in the way of firemen at fires.

47

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

SPECIAL TOPICS

Stories written from actual experience are of value. A visit to the central fire station of a city will be of interest to the whole class. An experience at a fire, if some pupil had undergone such a misfortune, would make another topic. A panic in a theater where the poHce had maintained order, the description of a flood where the guardians of the city were heroic, offer topics of thrilling interest to the pupils. Work of State Police. Work of State Fire Commissions. '

HELPFUL READINGS

Reports of Municipal Fire Departments.

Documents relating to State Police and Fire Commissions.

Frances Gulick Jewett, Town and City. Ginn & Co.,

Boston. C. D. Willard, City Government for Young People. The

Macmillan Co., New York. Richmond and Wallach, Good Citizenship. American

Book Co., New York. C. F. Dole, The Young Citizen. D. C. Heath & Co.,

Boston. Jacob Riis, Children of the Tenements. The Macmillan

Co., New York. W. B. Guitteau, Preparing for Citizenship. Houghton

Mifflin Co., Boston.

48

PUBLIC HIGHWAYS AND STREETS

3. Public highways and streets

Introductory discussion

The streets of a city offer a better opportunity for interesting pupils in civic activities than any other factor in the control of the municipality. Because much of their enjojrment is in the street they become acquainted with other agencies of the city government, its Police, its Fire, and its Health Departments, its waterworks, and its lighting plant, and, therefore, an immediate in- terest is stimulated with questions: Why are children forbidden to play ball or coast upon the streets and upon the sidewalks? Why are work- men digging deep into the streets and laying pipes of various sizes? Why are passageways marked private and teams forbidden to enter? Why are the streets lighted at night? Why are they cleaned and sprinkled, and the snow shoveled in winter? Why are streets named and numbered? The teacher can explain to children how the original highways came to be laid out for the convenience of people traveling, and how these thoroughfares, having become common property, are supported by the people. It can be shown that, as the pop- ulation increased and the roads were used for

49

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

traffic, sidewalks became necessary for the safety of pedestrians. Conditions prevailing before the establishment of waterworks and sewerage should be pointed out, and that because of unsanitary conditions which developed, it required organized effort to provide running water and sewerage to carry away the waste. Hence the use of our streets for the great mains which bring water and carry away refuse. As communities grew, one man's attempt at cleanliness often became a nui- sance to his neighbor. If everybody swept the refuse of his house into the street, the wind might blow it about; hence public care of the streets became a necessity. Destructive fires occasioned by overturned lamps brought about cooperative lighting companies, and the street has to accom- modate itself to the pipes and poles required for this service. Thus the children learn that the Street Department includes much of great im- portance in the way of community safety and comfort.

TOPICS FOR THE BLACKBOARD

(A) How the city controls its thoroughfares and streets.

Streets kept open for public traffic : — for foot passengers, for carriages, teamsters, automobiles, circuses, parades, pageants. Used by special utilities :

SO

PUBLIC HIGHWAYS AND STREETS

— By railways, electric, steam, and horse, and by telegraph and telephone companies, by gas and elec- tric lighting companies, by waterworks and city sewerage. Construction : — New roads, new pave- ments, sidewalks, curbings, gradings, crossings, al- leys, repair of old roads, building bridges, wind guards, storm guards. Care of streets : — Cleaning, watering, flushing, shoveling snow, street scavengers and sand men.

The pupils will see that the making of new roads is most important, because by such development the city grows in one direction or another. The width of streets, the setting-out of trees along the streets, the open spaces or small parks, all combine to make the **city beautiful."

{B) Relation of other departments to Street Depart- ment.

The Health Department, Care of ashes, waste and refuse; flooding streets in the summer to prevent epidemics.

Fire Department, At times of fire the fire captain has authority over the street.

Police Department, Control of highways to direct trafiic, to prevent accidents, and to break up con- gested traffic.

City Engineer, Makes surveys and draws up plans for new construction.

Purchasing Department. Appropriation of money for road material, stone-crushers, wagons, horses,

SI

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

sprinklers, steam rollers, sweeping-machines, and all implements.

Further discussion

Because of what lies below the surface of the streets, and because of the public use of the streets by every one, the city has to grant franchises to private corporations that use their streets to further their business. A few questions like the following will arouse the discussion: Are franchises for electric light- ing and gas likely to be more beneficial for the people or for the private corporations that own them? Does our city own its water plant? Its lighting and transportation plants? In granting a franchise, why should it be revocable in a brief term of years? Why should corporations which use the city thorough- fares be made to pay for the use of them when these same plants are benefiting all the people all the time? Why should automobiles be taxed to support the thoroughfares?

(C) How the children can cooperate in keeping the streets in order.

Do not throw rubbish into the streets or into vacant lots in the neighborhood. Do not stir up piles of dead leaves. Do not dig in the streets. Do not destroy grass or shrubs. Do not mutilate fences or walls along the streets. Shovel the snow in front of your house. Try to keep the street watered in front of your home if the city does not find it possible to do so.

52

PUBLIC HIGHWAYS AND STREETS

Do not leave the ash barrel out all day, but keep it covered while it is out.

SPECIAL TOPICS

It is possible to correlate the story of national high- ways described in history with the opening up of roads everywhere. Overland routes, post-roads, and the like make interesting stories and anecdotes for special topics.

HELPFUL READINGS

Reports of the Street Department.

Reports of the State Commissioner of Highways.

Frances Gulick Jewett, Town and City. Ginn & Co.,

Boston. C. D, Willard, City Government for Young People. The

Macmillan Co., New York. Arthur W. Dunn, Community and the Citizen. D. C.

Heath & Co., Boston. Mabel Hill, Lessons for Junior Citizens. Ginn & Co.,

Boston. Meyer Bloomfield, Our City Street, The Civic Reader for

New Americans. American Book Co., New York.

52>

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

4. Public recreation

Introductory discussion

A quick review of lessons studied in geography may be the basis for the subject of parks. The teacher may recall to the pupils' minds the great national parks of the United States, or she may draw out the information by questioning. The point to be made is that the United States Gov- ernment believes in parks, and has done much to maintain them, for the enjoyment and instruc- tion of our citizens. This will lead to a discussion of state reservations and city reservations or parks. Such questions as the following will be suggestive: Why do most cities support parks? When you visit a park, what do you expect to find? What is landscape gardening? What is the difference between domestic and foreign trees? Why does the landscape gardener introduce wind- ing paths, with pretty vistas, cool, shady paths, duck ponds, lily-pad ponds? Why are some parts of parks left as tangles like real woods and other sections turned into lawns with flower beds and shrubs? Why should park commissions in large cities build casinos, add golf links, tennis courts, cricket fields, and baseball diamonds?

54

PUBLIC RECREATION

Why should all the indoor games at the casino and the dances and the bathhouses and the swim- ming-pools be most carefully supervised?

TOPICS FOR THE BLACKBOARD

(A) What the city community does for recreation.

Provides a park commission, consulting engineer, tree warden, landscape gardener, and general super- intendent of parks. The park commission supervises acquired land, and its beautification; organizes play and recreation, appoints teachers, and supplies all kinds of athletic apparatus in the large parks. In the open spaces and playgrounds there are sand piles, swings, and teeters and slides. The blackboard will be filled with suggestions from the pupils who will wish to include every detail within their own experi- ence. Some cities have wading-pools, while others have ponds with swan boats. There are bathhouses to be itemized as well as the names of the games and folk-dances taught by the supervisor. The children will not miss a thing.

{B) How the children can help the community care for its parks and playgrounds.

(i) In the park. Not to scatter rubbish. Not to pick flowers. Be orderly; Be polite. (2) In the play- grounds. To play fair. To "play up to the game." The teacher may ask: How soon does the boy at recess learn to play fair? What does good "team work " mean? What children make the best umpires?

55

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

What games are most helpful in preparinir hildren to be of service in the home? What is th^'^^ iference between playing a game for one's own saxe which leads to proficiency, and the game which is played by a group of persons which leads to a fine fellowship with the other members of the group? What is a good "loser"? How do these "play" terms show character — "Keeping the rules," "remembering the limits," "touching the goal"?

SPECIAL TOPICS

If the teacher wishes to present to the pupils the difference between boys and girls who are under supervision and those who are not, she can write on the blackboard in two columns the following topics, which when linked together in a little talk by the teacher should impress the pupils with the results of the playground movement: —

A CONTRAST IN A CITY

Supervised groups Urisupervised gangs

Outdoor playground Street loafing

Indoor gymnasium Playing in dark alleys

Team work Running errands for saloon keepers

Competitive games Intimate knowledge of dives

Prizes for work Visiting cheap shows and dance halls

Brass bands Raids into the country

Orchestra Lawless destruction of property in

Lantern shows the city or suburbs

Talking machines Beginning of petty misdemeanors:

Outings to museums Thieving

Excursions to country Setting brush fires

Lessons in cane-seating, cooking, Destroying signs

sewing, weaving, singing, painting, Larger misdemeanors:

drawing, box-making, dressmaking, Stealing

millinery Drunkenness

56

PUBLIC RECREATION

Establishn ' of clubs; in mass for Licentiousness

enthusi v broken into groups Summons to station house:

for woi. :h as, bird-club, civic Probable probation

club, mu lub, travel club, sav- Second oflEense

ings bank dah. The clubroom to Juvenile court

be pleasantly furnished with game Third offense

tables, reading-tables, pictures, Warrant to appear at court

fresh flowers, current magazines on Reformatory

all manner of topics, American flag Jail

Good citizenship Hardened heart toward reform

Criminal

Which is better, to appropriate money to organize and supervise playgrounds and gymnasiums, or to let the youth go without recreation centers, with a chance they may develop bad habits in the hours of leisure? Which, in the end, will be more likely to produce inmates of penal institutions or charitable institutions that will cost more than playgrounds and gymnasiimis? Is your town or city or community in need of playgrounds? Ought the people who live near the playground or park to be inspired to build more attractive houses and to keep beautiftd gardens?

HELPFUL READINGS

Reports on Municipal Departments.

Reports of State Parks and Reservations.

Reports of Department of Interior concerning National

Parks and Reservations. H. S. Curtis, Play and Recreation. Ginn & Co., Boston.

(A most helpful book for teachers.) C. D. Willard, City Government for Young People. The

Macmillan Co., New York. Frances Gulick Jewett, Town and City. Ginn & Co.,

Boston. William A. McKeever, Training the Boy. The Macmillan

Co., New York.

57

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

Sylvester Baxter, Public Parks and Playgrounds, Baths and Gymnasiums, The Civic Reader for New Americans. American Book Co., New York.

The National Municipal League Review, Philadelphia.

The American City, 87 Nassau St., New York.

The American Political Science Review, New York.

The Survey, New York.

M. V. O'Shea, Social Development and Edtication, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.

S8

PUBLIC EDUCATION

5. Public education

Introductory discussion

There is no community agency which develops an attitude of intelligent citizenship as does the public school. To show the children what the community is doing for their benefit, and to lead them to appreciate their opportunities, is most important. And moreover, as the members of the class study the school-system, cooperating with the work of the school, they may be taught to develop an appreciation of the larger influence of the school, whereby peoples from many nations coming to this country may become unified in the development of a truer democracy.

The group of lessons on schools may be ap- proached from various points of view by such questions as these : How are the public schools of the city supported? Who pay the taxes? If the schools are owned by the city, why should chil- dren care for the property thus possessed in common by all the citizens?

Or another group of questions may introduce the discussion: How much does it cost this city to educate a boy or girl if he attends every grade from the kindergarten through the high school?

59

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

In one classroom where this question was put the pupils estimated that the answer would be four hundred dollars apiece. And when the teacher asked the more subtle question whether the ex- penditure of so many dollars was, on the whole, worth while, a boy exclaimed enthusiastically, " I 'm not sure whether we '11 be worth educating, but our teacher has proved worth while/'

A third approach may be made by contrasting the course of studies taught in colonial days and those introduced into a modern curriculum.

TOPICS FOR THE BLACKBOARD

(A) What the city provides in the shape of schools,

(i) The school system. Kindergarten; elementary schools (primary and grammar grades); secondary schools (high schools and academies) ; special schools (evening schools, continuation schools, and schools for defectives) ; state universities.

The discussion that will accompany this group of topics will suggest questions: Why the family cannot educate the children? What does the school do that the parents cannot do? What difference between graded schools and ungraded schools? Is education compulsory in your State? At what age? For how many years? How are truants looked after in your community? Why such strict supervision? Why are evening schools necessary in factory centers? Where

60

PUBLIC EDUCATION

are vocational schools most needed? Why should agricultural schools be developed?

(2) Courses of study. Elementary: reading, writ- ing, number work, nature study, geography, gram- mar, history, Enghsh, physiology, manual training, music, drawing, gymnastics, domestic science. Sec- ondary: classics and foreign languages, mathematics, the sciences, commercial courses, vocational courses, literature, history.

These topics may be made of great interest by interpreting the meaning of the subjects. Grammar- school children may be quickened to enter upon the work of the secondary schools through a realization of what will be opened up to them in the advanced courses.

(B) How the city manages its school system.

The pupils should know that a School Board or School Committee is elected or appointed in every municipality; that in almost all cities this committee appoints a superintendent who has full supervision of the schools, often assisted by supervisors or special teachers. The class should be made to feel that a School Board or School Committee is a group of men who give their services and are supposed to be men and women who care greatly for the educational wel- fare of the community. The School Board is divided into subcommittees, who carry out details along dif- ferent lines. As a whole, the Board supervises the educational methods, visiting the schools, helping

6x

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

to shape the course of studies, expending the money appropriated for schools, and acting with the Build- ing Committee in relation to school buildings. The class will discover through discussion that, in all cities alive to good citizenship, much is being done to promote hygienic conditions in and about the school buildings, to regulate play and recreation, and to promote a closer union between children in the schools and parents in the home.

(C) Ecrw the children can cooperate with the school work.

The children soon realize, after these first lessons, the need of reciprocity in their daily life. A school spirit is engendered when once they realize what is ac- tually being done for them by the city. The latent good will of the children is shown by their answers to such questions as the following : Should pupils take a pride in their schoolroom? Should they cooperate in caring for the playground? How should they treat the materials, books, and apparatus provided for them? Should they be punctual, regular in attendance? Should they try to set a good example, a good school spirit to the younger boys and girls? What is school spirit? What is loyalty to an alma mater? If college men foster such loyalty, could not boys and girls introduce it into their school-day lives?

62

PUBLIC EDUCATION

SPECIAL TOPICS

Where it is possible because of the community life, the relationships of the school to other educational forces may be developed. The public library and the school offer a topic of interest; parents and teachers' associations another; school centers, civic leagues, excursions to museums, and other topics germane to the environment. The State University. Special schools. The Board of Education. The care of small rural schools. The work of the U.S. Commissioner of Education at Washington.

Investigate other opportunities for higher educa- tion: "Land Grant Colleges," national military and naval academies.

The training of teachers: normal schools, summer schools, schools of pedagogy.

HELPFUL READINGS

Reports of School Boards or School Committees.

Reports of State Boards of Education.

Reports from United States Commissioner of Education, the Bureau of Education.

J. P. Munroe, New Demands in Education. Doubleday, Page & Co., New York. (This book is for the teach- ers.)

William A. McKeever, The Industrial Training of the Boy. The Macmillan Co., New York.

Mabel Hill, Lessons for Junior Citizens. Ginn & Co., Boston.

Arthur W. Dunn, The Community and the Citizen. The

63

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

Macmillan Co., New York. (Very important contribu- tion.)

C. A. Lamprey, Public Education, The Civic Reader for New Americans. American Book Co., New York.

William B. Guitteau, Preparing for Citizenship, and Gov- ernment and Politics in the United States, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.

R. L. Ashley, Government and the Citizen. The Macmillan Co., New York.

C. F. Dole. The American Citizen. D. C. Heath & Co., Boston.

A. S. Draper, American Edtication. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.

64

PUBLIC LIBRARIES

6. Public Libraries

Suggestions for Discussion

The teacher can readily show the class that just as children enjoy story-books with pictures, so to the public the library is what the picture story-book is to the child. As in most cities and villages library buildings are erected in order that people may have access to books in one cen- tral place, the question arises for the future, Will it be best to go on putting up big buildings where together with the books there may be collections, exhibits, and museums, or will it be wiser to have branch libraries and circulating libraries, so that people may get at the books more frequently? (The discussion which will follow a question of this nature will depend largely upon the condi- tions in the city or village.) Should the public have access to the shelves in the library? Why should books be returned every two weeks, and some books every week? Are there reading-rooms in most libraries? What should be the regulations for a reading-room? Why? Is a reading-room for children particularly beneficial? Why should story-tellers be appointed for children's reading- rooms? How do you know what books to read?

6s

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

Can you use a card catalogue? Why did Mr. Carnegie wish to give so much of his money to founding Hbraries? Why should modem Hbra- lies be fireproof? Why should perfect sanitation be needed in a library? Why have skylights as well as windows? Why have shaded lamps for evening use? How do schools combine with libra- ries to advance education? How do school cen- ters and civic clubs use books from a general library to further the reading habits in a particu- lar locality? If such a use of public library books has not been developed in your town or city, would it not be helpful for you to start a reading circle and carry out some such method of public book-letting? Try it.

66

CARE OF DEPENDENTS

7. Care of dependents

Introductory discussion

The psychological time to teach the work of public charity or to explain Associated Charities is during the winter months if possible. The ques- tions arise at the outset, Have we any poor in our city? Who are the poor? Who are the incap- ables, the shiftless, and wayward? What is meant by "undeserving pauperism"? Who are the really needy poor? What is meant by " hard times"? What are temporary cases? What are chronic cases? What agencies exist in the com- munity to care for those who are unable to sup- port themselves? Why has it become necessary for communities to organize systematic relief for dependents or those who are unable to support themselves?

TOPICS FOR THE BLACKBOARD {A) How the community cares for the poor,

(i) The Charity Commission^ or Overseers of the Poor. Investigation of the residence of applicants (the State pays for applicants who have no residence in any city or town).

(2) Activities of the Board, Temporary cases,

67

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

chronic cases, pauper cases. Outdoor relief. Orders for groceries, meats and fuel, clothing, medicines, city physicians; assistance to find work. Indoor relief. Town farm, city farm, hospitals, shelters, tem- porary homes, asylums for orphans (better still, homes for orphans in private families).

(3) Relation with the State Board of Charity. (Per- sons who have no residence may be placed in asy- lums, industrial schools, state homes, or in private families, the board paid for by the State.)

Further discussion

Questions in economics may arise as public charity is discussed. Which is the wiser expenditure of money by a city or State, to support schools for the feeble-minded in order to train them to do something with their hands which will aid in their support, or simply to segregate them into asylums when they have no families to support them? Wayward boys and girls often end by going to jails; is the expenditure of money for industrial schools supported by county and State worth while, if at these industrial schools boys and girls are taught trades, and learn to be self- supporting and of use in the world? In most States there are institutions for the feeble-minded, the blind, wayward boys and wayward girls, epileptics, and degenerates, the aged and infirm, the insane, the criminals, paupers, cripples, and orphans. These questions concerning them may be asked: Does the community make provision for any of the above

68

CARE OF DEPENDENTS

classes of dependents? Or are such persons cared for by state or county institutions? Name the hospitals in your community. Are people better cared for in a hospital than in some homes? Why are there out-of- door hospitals for tuberculosis sufferers? What in- stitutions for orphans are there in our community? What difference must there be between life in an orphanage and one in a private family? Are there any old men's homes or old ladies' homes in your community? Could a community take care of its de- pendents without the aid of private assistance?

(B) How the children can cooperate in charity work.

By reporting all persons who need charity to some one in authority. To find out what agencies exist in the community which care for dependents. To find out what people can help in giving emplo)mient, and by interesting others to do the same. By obtaining old clothes and toys for the very poor children in school. By teaching immigrant playmates the pre- vention of disease and community health laws. By discussing in the home the need of school physicians, district nurses, milk stations, better housing condi- tions. By fighting the Great White Plague. By urg- ing holiday excursions into the country upon those who live all summer in crowded districts.

SPECIAL TOPICS

Written descriptions of special experiences in investigating charity work. Plan a Christmas box

69

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

for children far away. Arrange a Christmas tree for children who are not as well off as the members of the class. Visit a state institution if possible and make both oral and "v\Titten reports. (The following special topics illustrate investigation of one state charity, namely, the Commission for the Blind.)

WORK OF THE COMMISSION FOR THE BLIND

The Commission attempts to further preventive work; to cooperate in finding blind persons; attempts to cooperate with local industries in assisting work- men who have become blind to support themselves again. Statistics: 20,000 visits made by the Commis- sion: 30 little children placed in the nursery for bHnd babies; 125 children placed in a famous charity school for the blind; 274 men and women started in training work at the State Home Teachers for the Blind; 150 persons given tickets for concerts and lectures; 173 adults trained to support themselves in part or wholly. Work of the inmates of the school for the blind: caning chairs, making rugs, mops, brooms, and cheap mattresses, tuning pianos and assistance in domestic service.

HELPFUL READINGS

Reports of the Overseers of the Poor or Charity Depart- ment. Reports of the State Boards of Charity. Reports of Federal Bureaus covering work of hospitals.

70

CARE OF DEPENDENTS

C. D. Willard, City Government for Young People, The

Macmillan Co., New York. Frances Gulick Jewett, Town and City. Ginn & Co.,

Boston. Mabel Hill, Lessons for Junior Citizens. Ginn & Co.,

Boston. J. H. Hollander, The Abolition of Poverty. Houghton

MiflBlin Co., Boston. Arthur W. Dunn, Community and the Citizen. D. C.

Heath & Co., Boston. Albert Bushnell Hart, Actual Government. Longmans,

Green & Co., New York. William B. Guitteau, Government and Politics in the

United States. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston. C. F. Dole. The American Citizen. D. C. Heath & Co.,

Boston. R. L.* Ashley, Government and the Citizen. The Macmillan

Co., New York.

71

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

8. Public utilities

Introductory discussion

What should we do without our waterworks in a big city? How has the need for a system of waterworks developed? What has become the general custom of ownership of waterworks? What is the method of sewerage in your city? Is the sewerage plant controlled by the city or by private corporation? Have you a public lighting system, either gas or electricity, or both? Who controls this lighting system? Should a city con- trol its transportation utilities? Do you know of any cities famous for municipal ownership of electric cars and omnibuses? What is a franchise? When a city gives a franchise for fifty or seventy- five years, why should popular feeling rise up against it? What powers should be protected when a city gives a franchise to a private corpo- ration?

TOPICS FOR THE BLACKBOARD

{A ) How communities generally control public utilities,

(i) Waterworks. Municipal ownership in most cities and towns. Build permanently for growing needs of city.

72

PUBLIC UTILITIES

(2) Lighting plants. Private ownership in most cities. Great need to reduce the price of gas and electricity.

(3) Sewers. Municipal ownership in almost all cities. Control for public health. Built for future growth of the city.

(4) Transportation. Private ownership in most cities. Control of railways, subways, elevated, cable- cars, omnibuses, canal-boats, steamers. Length of franchise should be brief because of constant changes in local conditions. Questions of fares and transfers important.

(5) Telegraph and telephone utilities. Mostly pri- vate ownership in America; in Europe, mostly public.

(6) Other public utilities which are gradually becoming common: municipal tenements to advance housing conditions. Municipal baths and laundries for health and convenience. Municipal markets for lowering cost of living. Municipal mines for the pro- tection of poor in cold weather. Municipal wharves for convenient docking.

(B) Interest children should take in public utilities.

To help prevent waste of water in public buildings and fountains. To prevent the breaking of apparatus which belongs either to public or private property connected with public utilities. (Street lamp-posts, electric car windows, hydrants, etc.) To notify the police of any abuses which will inconvenience the public. To discuss the subject of poor lighting, inade-.

73

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

quate drainage, infrequent car service, if such condi- tions exist.

SPECIAL TOPICS

Would public ownership create activities and com- petition, or develop indifference? Would public ownership lower tax rate? Make a study of municipal ownership in Glasgow, Scotland, and Cleveland, Ohio. Investigate special municipal ownership in. other American and European cities.

HELPFUL READINGS

Reports of the gas works, lighting plants, street railway service, and other public utility agencies.

Richmond and Wallach, Good Citizenship. American Book Co., New York.

C. D. Willard, City Government for Young People. The Macmillan Co., New York.

Frederick C. Howe, The City ; D. F. Wilcox, The Ameri- can City. The Macmillan Co., New York.

Charles ZuebUn, American Municipal Progress. The Macmillan Co., New York.

WiUiam B. Guitteau, Preparing for Citizenship, and Gov- ernment and Politics in the United States. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.

74

REVIEW OF COMMUNITY LIFE

9. Review of community life

Introductory discussion

Every little while the teacher has to make sure that her class is keeping in mind the earlier les- sons which have been presented. A larger and more vital review should be required after all the municipal agencies have been discussed. The aim of such a review should be to present a bird's- eye view of the environment around the school, and the relation of the members of society to that community life.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

What public interests have direct relationship to one's home life? Which of the important civic agen- cies would be most immediately missed if done away with in the crowded tenement district — the sewer- age, health, waterworks, or lighting? What would occur to the general morality of the community if schools and libraries were done away with? What gen- erally occurs in a big commercial and manufacturing center when a strike takes place in connection with rapid transportation? In rural districts is the lack of rapid transit of any great moment? What is the need to further telephonic and telegraphic communica- tion in the country? Why so great need of good roads to-day throughout the rural districts? Why are good

75

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

schools so needed in rural communities? Why should a country school try to teach agriculture, and a city school add industrial work? Why try to keep the youth in the country? Why try to improve and advance skilled labor in the city? Why not encour- age the country-born boy to come to the city? What advantages in the city over those in the country? What does the country hold out as advantages? How does the cost of living in the country compare with that in the city? What makes the difference? What is a* fair living wage for the workingman? What is a fair living wage for a young girl in the city who must support herself? How do public reading-rooms, libraries, museums, parks and playgrounds, public dance halls, public baths, and public markets help the minimum wage-earner to gain a little more hap- piness? How do the following organizations help to further happiness in community life: college settle- ments, community centers, civic leagues, musical associations, and school centers? Give specific illus- trations from such associations in your own com- munity.

TOPICS FOR THE BLACKBOARD

(A) Community life.

Provides protection to life, health, and property, through police, fire, health, street, charity, and spe- cial laws concerning the welfare of women, children, and workmen. Provides education and recreation through schools, museums, libraries, parks, play-

76

#

REVIEW OF COMMUNITY LIFE

grounds, dance halls, concerts, lectures. Provides conveniences — telegraph, telephone, transportation, water, light.

Further discussion

Greater opportunities which may grow through larger community life.

Better city planning: Laying-out of streets and boulevards with an idea of civic beauty; tree- planting; open spaces, with fountains and flowers; parkway for driving; proper location for school- houses and playgrounds; removal of bill boards; laws against smoke nuisance; underground disposal of wires; architectural construction of arches and tun- nels, lamp-posts, and entrances to public property; and the abolishment of grade crossings.

Better city life: minimum wage; eight hours of work; vocational schools; information bureaus to further employment; summer schools; one day of rest for la- borers; eight-hour shifts in continuous industries (in such occupations as railroad service) ; equal pay for equal work; hospitals; parents and teachers' associa- tion; municipal moving-picture shows; open-air con- certs; Sunday entertainments; prevention of trade poisoning; advance of industrial hygiene in occupa- tions.

{B) How children may help in the community.

By being an interested junior citizen, active in what the community is doing for every one and not

77

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

just the pupil's own family. By cooperation in the home, the school, neighborhood, and town or ward; eager to help parents and teachers; a friend to immi- grants and strangers in the neighborhood. To be honest. To lend a hand. "A friend, not alms." Begin to adorn one's own house with flowers toward larger civic beauty. Own a pet, a dog, cat, bird. Be kind to aged and infirm, and little children. Never injure property and take care not to hurt another's feelings.

SPECIAL TOPICS

Cities already famous in the United States and in Europe, for civic lif e,[better conditions, welfare move- ments, child welfare, human welfare, "civic beauty."

HELPFUL READINGS

C. D. Willard, City Government for Young People. The

Macmillan Co., New York. Arthur W. Dunn, The Community and the Citizen. The

Macmillan Co., New York. Thomas N. Carver, Principles of Rural Economics. Ginn

& Co., Boston. Katharine Coman, What we owe to our Fellow Citizens ;

Myron E. Pierce, Concerning Citizenship, The Civic

Reader for New Americans. American Book Co., New

York. Ellen Key, The Century of the Child. Putnam's Sons,

New York. Mary Conyngton, How to Help. The Macmillan Co.,

New York. Carlton Hayes, British Social Politics. Ginn & Co.,

78

REVIEW OF COMMUNITY LIFE

Boston. (A most helpful book for the teacher to com- pare English social progress with that in the United States.)

John Spargo, The Bitter Cry of the Children, The Mac- millan Co., New York.

Woods and Kennedy, Young Working Girls. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.

Jane Addams, Social Progress. The Macmillan Co., New York.

Meyer Bloomfield, The Vocational Guidance of Youth. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.

Mary A. Laselle and Katherine Wiley, Vocations Jor Girls,

V Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston. ^

79

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

10. The problem of immigration

Introductory discussion

Both the knowledge of colonial history and the general information gathered from experience in the neighborhood will give the pupils ample material from which to answer many introduc- tory questions connected with immigration in the community. How many children in the class were bom in foreign countries? Whose parents were foreign-born? Who knows from what coun- try their early ancestors came to settle in the thirteen colonies ? What other foreign countries beside England and Holland settled ,on the At- lantic seaboard? What characteristics and social customs and habits were introduced by the early settlers from the foreign coimtries? When did the Irish come to this country in large numbers? The French Canadians? Why did the Italians and Greeks begin to come near the close of the nineteenth century? What national contributions should these foreigners bring? For instance, the Greek art; the French fashions and manners. Make a list of the various nations whose contri- butions have already helped to form American, or in all probability will help to form American, ideals.

80

THE PROBLEM OF IMMIGRATION

TOPICS FOR THE BLACKBOARD

(A) Causes of Immigration : —

Desire for larger opportunities; better wages; free- dom from religious and political interference; promise of great prosperity; urgent appeals from friends and organizations; crowded conditions in the home country.

Need of immigrants to further United States business: Unskilled labor for factories, machine shops, rail- roads, canals, dikes, mines, quarries, big farming in the West.

Further discussion

I

What great ports receive the large proportion of immigrants? Where is Ellis Island? and what is it? What are the requisites for admission for foreigners into this country? Who are excluded? Why? What political creeds are looked upon as unwelcome? Why are Mongolians excluded? Why are Indians pre- vented from naturalization unless they leave their tribe? What particular diseases are particularly menacing to the country? What is a quarantine sta- tion? Why should such care be taken to investigate the steerage of all vessels and the personal health of all people who enter ports? What is deportation? What do steamboat companies do when they find that foreigners have smuggled themselves into the hold of a ship in their desire to reach America? What does our Government do when steamship companies

8i

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

bring over people who are not fit to enter our ports? What has been the difficulty with the padrone sys- tem?

(B) The responsibility of the Government in relation to the immigrant: —

To prevent fraud, abuse, exploitation of the newly arrived foreigner; to help place immigrants in locali- ties fitted to their needs and efficiency; to establish bureaus of information and employment bureaus; to make and enforce laws to protect the immigrant; to educate him in American citizenship by establish- ing day and night schools, community centers, civic leagues, civic service houses, and other organizations; to foster citizenship; to establish a standard of mini- mum wages; to better housing conditions; to manage cheaper transportations from homes to work centers.

Further discussion

What makes the environment of the immigrant tend toward a lower standard of living? How has the sweatshop menace grown so large because of immi- grants? Why do so many immigrants find their way into our hospitals, asylums, and homes for incap- ables? What cities of necessity are studying these problems of immigration? When a mill city like Lawrence, Massachusetts, or a great mining and manufacturing center like Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, is confronted with conditions which menace not only the health and property of those in control, but the

82

THE PROBLEM OF IMMIGRATION

health and living conditions of the very poor, why are so-called "surveys" of very great importance? •

(C) Effects of immigration: —

Economic effects: The settlement of undeveloped country; the expansion of localities in towns and cities.

Social effects: Increasing number of classes of so- ciety and unrelated groups of people; tendency to lower standard of morals and manners; greater amount of crime, pauperism, and vice; municipal problems, housing, schools, health, transportation, enforcement of laws.

Political effects: Growth of socialism; menace of anarchistical ideas; ward bosses in cities.

(D) How the children can help the immigration problem: —

Personal interest in making acquaintances at school among immigrant children; interest in their racial contribution to society; appreciation of folk- dances, folk-songs, folk-stories; effort to overcome race prejudice; readiness to cooperate with foreigners in social life; willingness to help them understand the laws and customs of the United States.

SPECIAL TOPICS

Story of life in the steerage. Resumes of books which are peculiarly interesting, as, Mary Antin's Promised Land. A study of the work of the Bureau of

83

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

Immigration, under the control of the Department of Commerce of the United States. A visit from an adult immigrant, who will talk before the class upon the subject of what immigration means to him or to her.

84

NATURALIZATION

II. Naturalization

Suggestions for discussion

Many members of the class will know from family experience something of the process of naturalization and its privileges. Such questions as the following will naturally arise: How many of your fathers have the privilege of voting? Why or why not? If your parents were born abroad, how did they acquire their citizenship in the United States? Have you ever heard your father describe just what happened when he was natu- ralized? Were witnesses necessary? Were the witnesses American citizens?

The Process of naturalization fixed by Congress,

igo6

Requirements: After two years' residence, decla- ration of intention taken out at a court. (Courts for naturalization sit once in three months.) The papers called the "Declaration of Intention '* are kept by the one who declares his intentions. Three years later the foreigner, having lived in the United States for three years, and in a given State for one year, files his second papers before a court. Two witnesses are necessary; they swear

8s

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

to his personal character of honesty and good intentions, to his willingness to abjure his mother country and to renounce his former allegiance; he takes an oath of allegiance that he believes in the Constitution of the United States, and that if necessary he will take up arms to support the country.

HELPFUL READINGS

Federal Reports of the Bureau of Immigration. State Reports of Commissions of Immigration. Reports of Labor Laws.

Reports of Civic Service Houses, College Settlements. Albert Bushnell Hart, Actual Government. Longmans

Green & Co., New York. William A. McKeever, Training the Boy. The Macmillan

Co., New York. Mary Antin, The Promised Land, and They Who Knock at

Our Gates. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston. James PuSer, Vocational Guidance. Rand, McNally & Co.,

Chicago. Edward M. Steiner, On the Trail of the Immigrant. F. H.

Revell Co., New York and Chicago. Charles Stelzle, The Workingman and Social Problems.

The Macmillan Co., New York. Nathaniel C Fowler, Jr., How to Obtain Citizenship. Sully

& Kleenteich, New York. A. M. Rihbany, A Far Journey. Houghton Mifflin Co.,

Boston.

86

RIGHTS OF CITIZENSHIP

12. Rights and privileges of citizenship

Introductory discussion

The interest of the class has been centered upon the activities of government for many lessons. The time comes when the teacher can bring before the class not only a review of the life in the community and the responsibiHty of each mem- ber of society in relation to the community, but also the actual legal rights and obligations that belong to what is called citizenship in the United States. The first questions may be shaped in some such form as these: Who are American citi- zens? Who are aliens? Have you ever heard of "homeless ones" (heimathlosen) ? What does "losing one's citizenship" mean? Who are colo- nists and dependents? Are all the American Indians citizens, or only a few of them? Are there any Chinese in this country who are citizens? Are women and children citizens? Are the same rights of citizenship which are embedded in the Federal Constitution also expressed in all of the forty-eight state constitutions?

87

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

TOPICS FOR THE BLACKBOARD

(A) Citizenship found in ten amendments to the Fed* eral Constitution of the United States : —

Personal liberty (right to come and go without restraint).

Personal security (right to enjoy life, health, reputation, pursuit of happiness).

Right to assemble (peaceably for discussion).

Right to petition.

Right to worship.

Freedom of speech and press.

Freedom from unreasonable search of one's body or house.

Right to protect private property (getting, using, disposing of all property that one calls '^nd can prove to be his own. With due process of law and for just compensation. Government can take private property for public purposes).

Right of one's personal time and labor.

Right of trial by jury.

Right of bail.

Protection from excessive bail.

Speedy trials.

Assistance for defense.

Protection from second trials for same offense.

Protection from unusual punishment.

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RIGHTS OF CITIZENSHIP

Further discussion

The children should know that there are three ways in which citizenship is acquired — by birth, by naturalization, and by annexation. The study of their American history will help them in answering these questions. When did the people of Missouri become citizens of our country? When did the Alas- kans, or the people of Porto Rico become American citizens? Are the Japanese citizens of California? Do any States permit the women to vote upon all sub- jects? How came the privilege to be given to them in certain States and not in others? Are children, born of American parents who live in foreign countries, American citizens, or citizens of the foreign country in which they were born? If a baby were born in Germany, would his United States parentage pre- vent him from being impressed into the German army at an eligible age?

{B) Obligations of all American citizens : —

All American citizens are held responsible to local, state, and national laws.

They must submit to court decision and accept the punishment awarded.

They must help keep order in the government when called upon, — serve in the state mili- tia, or send an equivalent and serve on juries, take part in public elections and uphold the form of government of the country.

Pay taxes, if taxed.

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THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

SPECIAL TOPICS

In presenting the idea of the relationship of the individual citizen to his community and country, there is an important opportunity to bring before the class the personal contributions of certain well-known men and women who have made the town famous because of what they have done to promote the gen- eral welfare. Any one or all of these questions will be possible of enlargement for such special topics; they should be rich in local history color. Who have been the "good citizens" of our town or city? Who were the pioneers to settle the country in this locaHty? What names are honored because of service in times of early wars? What heroes have given noble serv- ice in other ways? Who founded the first schools? Who started the public library? What men and women have been instrumental in furthering church work? Who have taken an interest in associated charities and philanthropies? Why are streets often named for a person in a community; or a park named for some one? Have you seen fountains or statues in public places in honor of good citizens? Have there been portraits of men and women hung in public] places in memory of their good deeds?

-. HELPFUL READINGS

Jane Addams, Works. The Macmillan Co., New York. Walter Weyl, The New Democracy. The MacmillanjCo., New York.

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RIGHTS OF CITIZENSHIP

E. N. Clopper, Child Labor and the City Streets. The

Macmillan Co., New York. Thomas N. Carver, Principles of Rural Economics. Ginn

& Co., Boston. (Chapter on " Problems of Rural Social

Life " particularly helpful.) M. E. Richmond, The Good Neighbor. Lippincott Co.,

Philadelphia. Frederick C. Howe, The City. Chas. Scribner's Sons,

New York. Wilson L. Gill, A New Citizenship. American Political

League.

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THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

13. Organization of a Junior Civic League in a Community

Suggestions for discussion

In school centers, in college settlements, in civic settlements, the time arises when groups of boys and girls or young men and young women seem to feel that an organization or league may be formed in which they may further their grow- ing ideals of good citizenship. In the public schools such leagues have a larger field for activ- ity than an3n;vhere else. The teacher may set forth not only the need of the organization, but the method of forming such a league, and the work that may be accomplished. What should be the object of a civic league in our school? Should it have a name? By what method might the mem- bership become possible? Would a sign or sym- bol of the membership help to develop enthusi- asm? Would you prefer a button or a pin or a ring? What would the duties of the officers be? What officers should be appointed? How should they be chosen? How often should there be meet- ings? Should there be a pledge taken by officers and members together? What should this pledge include?

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ORGANIZATION OF A JUNIOR LEAGUE

The Pledge

I pledge myself not to deface any fence or building, neither will I scatter paper nor throw rubbish in public places; I will not injure any tree, shrub, or lawn; I promise not to spit upon the floor of the schoolhouse, nor upon the sidewalk; I will protect the property of others as I would my own; I will al- ways protect birds and other animals; I will promise to try to be a true loyal citizen.

(Signed)

Witness: — Principal,

The School Civic League

Constitution and By-Laws

article i Name and object

Section i. We shall be known as the

Civic League of

Section 2. The object shall be to help keep our school and neighborhood beautiful, clean, and healthful.

ARTICLE II

Membership

Section i. All pupils in the Gram- mar (or High) School can become members by mak- ing known their wish to join and signing the League Pledge.

Section 2. Every member is entitled to a button.

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THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

ARTICLE m

Officers

Section i. The officers of such League shall be a President, Vice-President, and Secretary, who shall hold office for one school year. The President shall be chosen from the ninth grade. There shall also be an Executive Committee, composed of the Presi- dent, Vice-President, Secretary, and two members of the faculty. These officers shall be elected by ballot.

ARTICLE IV

Duties of officers

Section i. The President shall call the meetings to order, call for reports on violation and the per- formance of the pledge, and act as captain of the League.

Section 2. The Vice-President shall preside over all meetings in the absence of the President.

Section 3. The Secretary shall keep a record of all the reports given and shall read the reports at each meeting.

Section 4. The Executive Committee shall advise in all matters pertaining to the League.

ARTICLE V

Meetings

Section i. Meetings shall be called by the Presi- dent, subject to the direction of the Executive Com- mittee, j

94]

ORGANIZATION OF A JUNIOR LEAGUE

Further discussion

The enthusiasm of a club or league is of course at the high tide at the moment of initiation after the organization has been formed, and the balloting for officers. At once committees must be formed that answer the immediate needs of the school at the time of the organization, and further committees will have to be appointed as the seasons change, or as events in the school give occasion. These questions may sug- gest further ideas relative to committee work. What committees should be formed to care for the window boxes, and for the planting and transplanting of bulbs? For the inspection of waste-baskets? For the care of unclaimed property? For the oversight of seat-work material? Shall the outdoor gardens be supervised? Shall there be inspectors of the streets around the school grounds who are responsible for the appearance? Should the committees have any oversight of the property of the parks and play- grounds where the children have the privilege of playing? Could the pupils in the manual training room make pointed sticks which would help in gathering together newspapers and other rubbish? Should the members of the civic leagues attempt to interfere with what others are doing; for instance, if a man were whipping a horse cruelly, what could the pupil do? If lawless persons wrote sentences with chalk on fences in the neighborhood, would members of the committees feel that they might erase such blemishes? Would it be too much to expect a boy to

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THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

help a woman put out an ash barrel if he saw it was too heavy for her to carry? Would members of the league be expected to give strangers advice if they were asked?

SPECIAL TOPICS

A pledge means but little unless one can see that the promises are being kept. The teacher may keep a set of cards, one for each member of the league, upon which a record may be made of how each child has not only kept the pledge in spirit, but furthered the work of good citizenship by giving personal assistance.

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POSTAL SERVICE

14. Postal Service

Introductory discussion

The postman with his mailbag is everywhere in these days. He is a thrice-told tale every day to the children in the crowded cities, and an antic- ipated event to those who live on the country farm, who are watching for the little wagon that stops at the letter box at the end of the lane. The narrative of how a letter travels when once the United States postage stamp is placed in the corner of the envelope can be made a story most thrilling when presented in a vital manner. Such a story was actually told in the Outlook not many months ago.

It does not matter just how the lesson in civics is opened which deals with the postal service in the community and the agencies behind the daily delivery which together make up the Department of the Post-Office. Any of the following questions will open the discussion and lead to many more. Have you ever visited the post-office? Why are you not allowed to go behind the scenes and watch the handling of the mail? Why should there be such strict laws and regulations? Do you remember from your study of American

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THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

history when a Post-OfSce Department was first established? What has made it grow so tremen- dously? How is the mail carried? What are the modes of conveyance? What is meant by the Government letting out contracts? What is meant by first-class, second-class, and third- class mail? Have you ever received letters by rural delivery? How long has the parcel post been established by the national Post-Office Department?

TOPICS FOR THE BLACKBOARD

(A) Post-Office Department : —

Postmaster-General. Supervisor of all postal service work, establishment and discontinuance of all post- oflSces.

First Assistant Postmaster-General. In charge of international postage, relationships with steamship lines, official appointments, stationery, and blanks.

Second Assistant Postmaster-General. In charge of letting out contracts for mail carrying, choice of modes of conveyance of mail, regulation of times and arrival and departure of mail, offices of distribution.

Third Assistant Postmaster-General. In charge of Dead Letter Office, stamp department, financial business.

Municipal postmasters. Appointed by National Government; have general charge of municipal postal service; four classes of post-offices. Duties.

98.

POSTAL SERVICE

Charge of finances, sale of stamps, stamped envel- opes, newspaper wrappers, special delivery and regis- try stamps, money orders and regular letters. Accu- rate account of number of mail sacks and delivery pouches sent out and received. In large cities, the Superintendent of Mails relieves the postmaster of this work. The Superintendent of Delivery in large cities has charge of all letter carriers, clerks, special delivery messenger boys. The parcel post, also, in large cities, is under a special superintendent.

Clerks. Have charge of separate mail not carried to letter boxes; charge of registry and money orders.

Carriers. Have charge of the collection and deliv- ery of mail on the street.

Further discussion

In order to break the strain in the discussion of a topic which includes so much detail, the teacher may ask the pupils for stories, real or imaginary, con- nected with the sending of an important letter. The topics connected with rural free delivery will also lend themselves to the imagination.

{B) Rural Free Delivery : —

Establishment of mail service on fixed line of travel daily for people in remote districts.

Requirements and necessities. Fairly good roads; unobstructed gates; no unbridged creeks or streams; twenty-four miles the limit of the tour; a hundred families upon the route; people furnishing their own

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THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

boxes; prescribed route, area not more than nineteen square miles, population of 600 or more persons, or 150 houses en route.

Requirements of carriers. Must not act as agents, salesmen, or solicitors for express companies; may act as agents for newspapers and sell newspapers; may carry postage stamps, postal cards, envelopes, money-order blanks; required to make trip in person every day in the year except Sunday.

Requirements regarding boxes. The following rules are fixed by the postmaster: regulation as to size, shape, and workmanship; galvanized sheet iron or steel construction, with signal by which collector will know that mail lies in box for collection.

Benefits of rural delivery. Stimulation of social and business correspondence, increase of press and peri- odical literature, hence, increased postal receipts; farm life brought into contact with the large business world; rural free delivery demands good roads, hence, farms rise in value along the roads.

Dead Letter Office. Division of letters : three classes, foreign, unmailable, and dead. All large municipal post-offices return unclaimed mail each week to the Dead Letter Office; small post-offices return once a month. Work of the office. Receipt of all dead letters; to ascertain if letters contain anything other than correspondence; to make effort to trace the writer of letter and return same. Letters containing no address go to the waste-basket. All valuables in dead letters are held by the office. Great care is taken to return

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POSTAL SERVIGE

I to the sender or to the possible receiver; public auc- tion sale follows when restoration is impossible; annual sale lasts a week. This bureau employs over twenty clerks who open, sort, and deposit an average of 18,000 letters per day.

SPECIAL TOPICS

The story of Rowland Hill's work for cheaper postage in England; description of postal service across the Great Plains of the United States in pioneer days; urgent appeal that the Christmas and Valentine Day mail shall be made less crowded for the carriers; the relationship of the Red Cross move- ment with postal service; the story of the growing service of the parcel post.

HELPFUL READINGS

Federal Reports of the Postmaster-General.

Albert Bushnell Hart, Actual Government. Longmans,

Green & Co., New York. W. W. Willoughby, The Rights and Duties of American

Citizenship. American Book Co., New York. William B. Guitteau, Government and Politics in the

United States. Houghton Mifflin Co, Boston. James and Sanford, Government in the State and Nation.

Chas. Scribner's Sons. New York. R. L. Ashley, Government and the Citizen. The Macmillan

Co., New York. See Poolers Index for magazine articles.

lOI

THE tSACHiNG OF CIVICS

I 15. The regulation of labor

Introductory discussion

The teacher will be able to approach this sub- ject most simply by the discussion of whether children can go to work at an earlier age than fourteen. To show that state and national laws are made to protect society both individually and collectively will seem at the outset a difficult task. But in most States to-day, there are enough legislative enactments which the children can understand to assist the teacher in interpreting the work of the United States Government in relation to labor in its largest sense. Already the most important department or bureau connected with the Department of Labor consists in its rela- tionship with the Bureau of Immigration which has already been discussed.

TOPICS FOR THE BLACKBOARD

(A) Labor questions in which the children should take an interest: —

Cost of living — retail prices and wholesale prices. Wages — the minimum wage. Hours of labor — women in industry. Industrial accidents.

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THE REGULATION OF LABOR

Occupational diseases.

Industrial hygiene.

Workmen's insurance, workmen's compensation.

Sweatshops, infant mortality.

Further discussion

In how far these topics may be discussed in the class will depend upon the environment of the school- room. The publications of the national Department of Labor not only consist of frequent reports upon all these subjects, but more than twenty volumes have been published with details in connection with the condition of woman and child wage-earners in the United States, and on conditions of employment for both men and women in industry. The informal ques- tion in the classroom is the one that obtains general information. Do you know men who work more than eight hours a day? Why is it dangerous to keep men on twelve-hour shifts? For a railroad company, which in the long run would be less expensive, to have three shifts of men a day, or two shifts? Why is this so much more important on the railroad than in excavations on canals and harbors? What about hours for labor in mines? Would a twelve-hour shift of men in a factory be likely to do as good work as those who work but eight hours? Why has society begun to feel that children must not go to work until after fourteen, or sixteen if possible? Why do we need a race of finely developed men and women? Why should employers be glad to accept laws in

103

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

connection with industrial accidents? What does workmen's insurance really mean? and workmen's compensation ?

In 191 2 Congress provided for the organization of a new bureau to be known as the "Children's Bureau." The class will be interested in learning that the functions of this new bureau are to investigate and report on all matters pertaining to the welfare of children and child life among all classes of our people, and especially to investigate the questions of infant mortality, the birth rate, orphanage, juvenile courts, desertion, dangerous occupations, accidents and diseases of children, employment and legislation affecting children in the several States. The law is not designed to encroach on the right of States or to relieve them of the duty of dealing with this subject, but to furnish information to enable them to deal with it more successfully. It also presumes that there is a duty on the part of the National Government to aid in getting information and data with a view to assisting in this work, and that the Government can get such information and data more effectively than can the respective States.

104

INDUSTRIES

i6. Industries

Introductory discussion

The class knows from the study of American history that in colonial days much of the work was done in the home or in individual workshops. Not until later did organizations where workmen were bound together become so important that it was necessary to make laws to regulate the price of goods, the wages of workmen, and the hours of work. The children know that such conditions do exist to-day, and that labor organizations have also helped to bring about inspection in con- nection with health, child labor, safety of em- ployees, the valuation of skilled labor, the pay- ment for accidental injuries in industries, and the protection of the unemployed. The following questions ought to help the children to see both sides of the labor question: Why should there be labor legislation to secure wholesome conditions of work? Why should child labor be prohibited? Why provide for safety appliances on railroads and in mines? Why should the Government think it a duty to interfere with strikes, riots and mobs? What is arbitration? What are trade unions? Why should careful investigation on

105

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

both sides take place before arbitration decides the rights and wrongs of strikes? Why do work- men become dissatisfied with their work? Why do workmen generally strike? Can the workmen live very long at the time of a strike without aid from other trade imions? Do you think it wise for workmen to belong to trade unions? How far do you think the Government, federal, state, or mu- nicipal, has a right to make regulations in regard to private industry? Consider this from the point of view of the employer, the employee, and the public. Is a private industry really a private af- fair? Do business men owe a duty to the public even if they do own their business? (The class may investigate the welfare movement, and note whether in their city, in mills, shops, or stores, the employers are establishing welfare ideas, or in other words, cooperation and profit-sharing to the advance of the business.)

Discuss the local cost of living, rates of wages, regulations in regard to extra work and extra hours.

TOPICS FOR THE BLACKBOARD

(A) Rates of wages {"general average'^ throughout the United States): —

Blacksmiths, $2.26; railroad hands, $1.45; carpen-

106

INDUSTRIES

ters, $2.42; masons, $2.79; glassmakers, $1.79; cotton mills, $1.40; woolen mills, $1.24. (The class may- note the difference between wages for skilled labor and intelligence, with shorter hours, and automatic machinery which does not take great intelligence.)

HELPFUL READINGS

Reports of Department of Labor.

Reports of Labor Commissions.

Reports of trades unions.

Magazine articles.

Albert Bushnell Hart, Actual Government. Longmans,

Green & Co., New York. C. D. Wright, Industrial Evolution. Scribner's Sons,

New York. James W. Garner, Government in the United States. Amer- ican Book Co., New York. Thomas Davidson, Education of the Wage-Earners. Ginn

& Co., Boston. C. F. Dole, The American Citizen. D. C. Heath & Co.,

Boston. William B. Guitteau, Government and Politics in the

United States and Preparing for Citizenship. Houghton

Mifflin Co., Boston.

107

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

17. The Department of Agriculture

Introductory discussion

So many bureaus of activities have been devel- oped under the supervision of this great agency for good that one may begin to ask questions about the work at any one of a dozen distinct lines of interest.

What does the Weather Bureau do to help us in our everyday hfe? Does the Bureau of Soils affect life in the city as much as in the country? How does this bureau affect life in the big cities in a most important though indirect way? What about our Pure-Food Laws? and proper cold stor- age regulations? and pure drugs? How has the Bureau of Chemistry helped to make these laws and regulations? The Forestry Bureau and its work affects the Hfe in the city as well as in the country: can you see what would happen in a great mill town if the forests on the hillsides where streams and rivers rise were so devastated that floods occurred in the spring and long droughts in the summer?

108

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

TOPICS FOR THE BLACKBOARD

(A) Important bureaus in the Department of Agricul- ture: —

Bureau of Animal Industry (to better the live stock of the country). Bureau of Plant Industry (to increase and protect the vegetation). Bureau of Chemistry (to advance knowledge of nutritious foods and to reduce the cost of living, and to protect from poisonous and injurious foods). Bureau of Biological Survey (to investigate nature and to further educa- tional ideas regarding same). Bureau of Entomology (for the study of the prevention of insect pests). Bureau of Soils ("how to make two blades of grass grow where one blade did grow," and to prevent the waste of soil and the reclamation of the same). Forest Service (for the protection of forest reserva- tions from fire, and the development of homestead and other interests connected with the reservations). The Weather Bureau (to disseminate information to aid navigation, crop producers, and general trade and commerce everywhere). Bureaus of Public Roads, Experimental Stations, and so on.

Further discussion

The children should know that the Department of Agriculture has developed an educational campaign to increase the scientific knowledge of farming and to help develop home life on the farm.

Have experimental trains visited your town or

109

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

neighboring towns? What expert knowledge was pre- sented in these trains which ought to help the farm- ers? Have you seen the Farmers' Bulletin published by the Government? Have the girls in the class seen the cook book also published by the Department? If not, why not send for one? Why not also send for a list of published bulletins printed by the Govern- ment for circulation? How many experimental sta- tions connected with the United States Department of Agriculture are located in this State? Has this State an Agricultural College? Are there agricul- tural high schools in this State? Has your town or city introduced school gardens? Are there superin- tendents of agriculture connected with the school boards who supervise farming in your State or county? In some States there are Boys' Agricultural Clubs; why should such school extension be considered most effective for reaching, holding, and directing the interest of the pupils? Why should such clubs be sup- posed to promote better industrial and economic conditions in the community? In one State a bulle- tin is published under the title " School Aids to the Community"; it suggests as aims of the work to be carried out by the children taking a course in agri- culture problems like these: Would the class be better able to select farm animals and know more concerning the feeding of them? Would it bring out better testing of milk and cream? Ought there to be a more scientific knowledge of the cost of materials and the cost of labor for a farm? Would methods for

no

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

the destruction of insects be advanced? Would double crops ensue if a greater knowledge of seeds, soils, and cultivation were studied? If girls studied domestic science, would they be able to cook a school noonday meal? If the people in the country learn the best ways to market their produce, and the best way to raise their farm products, will this in the long run affect the cost of living in the city?

(B) How the Department helps us in our homes: —

Dietary knowledge. (Selection and preparation of nutritious foods; better cereals; how to prepare and use fruits, fresh and dried; quality of poultry and eggs improved; processes of cooking; new fruits and vege- tables imported from foreign countries; condensed milk and desiccated milk; better breadmaking, better butter-making, better preserves.)

(C) How the Department helps on the farm: —

Advises as to what crops to grow on sandy, or wet, or rocky soils; how to care for shade trees and shrubs; how to fight insect pests and domestic animal diseases; birds that are scavengers for the farm; economic value of birds; kitchen gardening and truck soil; distribution of fl.ower seeds and veg- etable seeds, bulbs and cuttings; use of fertilizer, when to use and when not to use, what to use and what not to use.

Ill

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

SPECIAL TOPICS

As each and all of the bureaus under the supervi- sion of the Department of Agriculture offer most interesting subjects for investigation, three have been chosen as examples of what may be done with all of these agencies.

The Forest Service

Because of the delight of the forest to every one, young and old, the teacher may well take the Forest Service as a special piece of work in which the whole class may take part. Its importance may be explained through a review of geography. Such questions as these immediately arise: What far-reaching effect from indiscriminate forest cutting? What is a flood? What is drought? In what way are droughts and floods connected with forestry? Why do scientists maintain that the exhaustion of soil which produces barren fields or poorly yielding farms follows the abuse of forest-cutting? Why should water-power be affected by forest-cutting? What local effects are connected with careless cutting of trees? Why should it affect the climate? or orchards and gardens, or shelter for cattle? In a country village, deforestation may affect the summer boarder. What benefits will be derived from proper protection of our forests? Why should good roads naturally follow? If the forest warden increased wild game, what of it? If the farmer gets better crops, and hence a bigger market, how does that affect the people in the city?

112

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

TOPICS FOR THE BLACKBOARD

Forest reservations; eminent domain; reforestra- tion; reclamation of reservations; replanting of devastated areas; exemption from taxation during reclaiming process; state forestry in relation to fed- eral forestry; fire protection in the forest; homestead enactments; European forestry; the life of the forest ranger (see article in Outlook for October 28, 1905); relation of Forestry Department to lumbermen, stockmen, miners, and farmers; the Forestry Service and the Bureau of Entomology.

Bureau of Entomology

If the class wished to spend a little more time upon the subject of what the Department of Agriculture is doing for community life, the teacher may well take up the very simple but important topic of the work done to prevent injurious insects from becom- ing pests in various localities. In most cities and towns in New England the children themselves have taken part in the fight against the g)^sy moth and the browntail moth. They will find in studying fur- ther into the particular work of this bureau that everywhere there seem to be injurious and poisonous insects making raids upon trees and slurubs and vegetables.

TOPICS FOR THE BLACKBOARD

Investigation of insects in their direct relation to the health of man and domestic animals; of insects

113

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

affecting vegetable crops; insects damaging decidu- ous fruit trees; insects at work on cereals; injurious insects in the forests, shade trees, and shrubs; insects affecting citron fruits; insects upon rice and cotton, upon stored products; the importation of useful in- sects and parasites which kill the injurious insects; the stud}' and work on furthering bee culture.

The Weather Bureau

Ever)rwhere in country village or large city chil- dren have access to weather maps. In some schools these maps are constantly used in connection with the study of geography; the children have general information on which to draw for answers to these questions. If this bureau can foretell the weather for all the different States, how is that a help to every one in general? What peculiar help is it to sailors at sea, to farmers in times of frost, and to fruit-growers? If the Weather Bureau announces that a big freeze is likely to sweep across a district where cranberries are growing in the autumn, what can the cranberry- growers do? What would grape-growers do at such a time? If the Weather Bureau notifies by wireless telegraphy the captain of a coastwise merchant ves- sel that a hurricane is likely to develop, what pre- cautions could be taken?

TOPICS FOR THE BLACKBOARD

Daily forecasts; weekly forecasts; indications of storms of tropical character; cold-wave warnings,

114

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

and of mountain snowfalls; marine meteorological charts; climatological reports; river and flood service; frost studies, and warnings; vessel-reporting service; evaporation studies; forest and rainfall investiga- tion; exploration of upper air with kites and balloons; observatories; experimental stations.

HELPFUL READINGS Forestry —

Reports of the Federal Bureau of Forestry.

Reports of State Bureaus of Forestry.

Catalogues of College Departments of Forestry.

Magazine articles. (These articles to be cut out, bound in manila paper, and kept on file.)

Theodore Roosevelt, Dynamic Geographer, F. B. Vroo- man, Henry Frowde, Oxford University, Eng.

See Poole's Index for past magazine articles. Agriculture —

Annual Reports of the Secretary of Agriculture.

Reports of State Colleges and Universities of Agricul- ture.

Special United States Bulletins, Circulars, Reprints, and Publications issued by the Bureaus of the Department of Agriculture.

William B. Guitteau, Government and Politics in the United States; and Preparing for Citizenship. Hough- ton Mifflin Co., Boston.

Albert Bushnell Hart, Actual Government. Longmans, Green & Co., New York.

James and Sanford, Government in State and Nation, Chas. Scribner's Sons, New York,

"5

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

i8. The Department of Commerce

Introductory discussion

When a ship is coming into our ports with goods from other countries, what helps to make the arrival one of safety? Why should we need coast pilots, tide-tables, lighthouses, and coast surveys? Why should the Government light rivers, and keep up buoys? Why are steamboat investigations necessary? Why should the Gov- ernment constantly supervise waterways, canals, railways and railroads, which they do not own, and which are controlled by private corporations? Why should surveyors be constantly kept at work on our boundary lines? Why should there be a supervision of fisheries and of the fur trade?

The Department of Commerce includes many bureaus. The children will see at once that our daily life is closely connected with trade and hence with shipping and railroading. One of the most important works under the direction of the Department of Commerce is that of the Bureau of Manufactures.

ii6

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

TOPICS FOR THE BLACKBOARD

(A) International commerce: —

Trade with grand divisions and countries: Imports and exports (raw material, food products, and manu- factured articles).

Trade with non-contiguous territories of the United States.

Trade between States.

International transportation (shipping interest all over the world). Number and tonnage of vessels, American and foreign sailing vessels and steamships.

Railroad management: Service, rates, speed and safety regulations.

(B) How our community benefits by commerce and navigation: —

Imports : Sugar, coffee, silk, hides, furs, cotton, wood, fruits, diamonds, tin, tobacco, spirits, tea, cocoa, oil, fish, vegetables, copper ore, breadstuffs, manufactured goods.

Further discussion

The Department of Commerce and the Bureau of Navigation protect our business from fraud and violence. How does the United States control foreign commerce? What is the difference between import, export, and excise duties? What is a bill of lading? When a vessel enters a port, or leaves a port, what bills must be paid from which the United States

117

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

Government receives an income? Why does this seem justifiable? If possible, visit a dock and obtain per- mission to watch the proceedings of the arrival, un- loading, and shipping by railway of the goods brought upon the ship. Note the processes which are federal, state, and local. If the class lives in the coun- try, make a similar investigation of the arrival or exit of freight cars, which are under interstate com- merce regulations.

HELPFUL READINGS

Annual Reports of the Department of Commerce, Reports

of Interstate ComLmerce Commission. C. D. Wright, Practical Sociology (American Citizenship

Series, 1900). Longmans, Green & Co., New York. William B. Guitteau, Government and Politics in the

United States; and Preparing for Citizenship. Houghton

Mifflin Co., Boston. Albert Bushnell Hart, Actual Government. Longmans,

Green & Co., New York. James W. Gamer, Government in the United States.

American Book Co., New York.

118

PEACE AND THE MILITARY SERVICE

19. Peace and the military service

Introductory discussion

The instructors who belong to the Teachers' Peace League, heartily cooperating in the world movement for international arbitration, do not need to feel disloyal to the cause if the activities of state militia, United States Marine Corps, and the larger agencies of the War and Navy Depart- ments are presented in the civics class.

*'In times of peace prepare for war." Why has this saying been so much quoted? Do you know any young men who are volunteers belonging to the state militia? The regular volunteers all over the country from all the States are known as the National Guard; do they bear any relation to the regular standing army of the United States? What does the word "volunteer" mean when the Government declares war? Has the governor of your State had to call upon the regular militia re- cently, either to deal with mobs, to settle strikes, or to assist in connection with floods or other great disasters? Do you know any persons who are interested in the Red Cross work? Do you think that belonging to Boy Scouts and Campfire Girls will make young people more ready to serve

ai9

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

in the militia if necessary and in the work of the Red Cross? If we are to foster the idea of disarmament in the future, what conditions at present demand that the State and Federal Governments maintain the miHtia, the stand- ing army, and squadrons of well-equipped bat- tleships?

The members of the class will take an immedi- ate interest in life at West Point and at Annap- olis. Such information as the teacher can give based upon historical and geographical data will help in answering the questions : How is a cadet appointed to West Point? To Annapolis? Why is such strict discipline necessary throughout the course at these schools? What courses of instruc- tion would seem necessary and fitting?

TOPICS FOR THE BLACKBOARD

(A) The War Department : —

The Adjutant-General (in charge of matters relating to soldiers) ; Quartermaster-General (in charge of mat- ters relating to horses, etc.) ; Commissary-General (in charge of matters relating to foods and rations); Surgeon-General {m charge of matters relating to medical care and hospitals) ; the Bureau of Forts and Bridges, the Bureau of Ordnance and Guns, the Bureau of Artillery, the Bureau of Courts-Martial (under the Judge Advocate-General), the Bureau of

1 20

PEACE AND THE MILITARY SERVICE

Signal Service, the Weather Bureau, Paymaster- General (has the care of finances).

State Militia. Its direct relationship to Federal Government in times of peace; relationship in times of war; state encampment; relationship between militia and naval operations.

Further discussion

Can you locate our most important forts? What is meant by military operations in times of peace? Why do we need coaling stations in foreign countries? Why do we need dry docks, and repair shops? Where are some of our most important foreign naval head- quarters? When one becomes an American citizen, either by naturalization, birth, or annexation, does he assume any obligation to serve in times of war? Does our navy need able-bodied men? What are the advantages to a citizen who chooses as his life's work to serve in the marines or the army? What great dis- advantages are there also? Who are the marines? What are arsenals, navy yards, magazines, and receiving ships? Our marines are constantly being sent upon expedition work, and upon emergency calls for protection of interests and lives of American citi- zens; they are sent on cruising battleships, and often undergo great hardships. A marine must be drilled to shootperfectly; rifle teams are encouraged in order to produce fine marksmanship. Did you ever visit a navy yard? On entering the marine service boys take a pledge to "defend the colors." Do you think ordi-

121

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

nary schoolboys understand what that means? Men who have become skilled laborers in the naval service are called warrant officers; they enter as enlisted men, but because of their increasing value as work- men, they become indispensable to the department — boatswains, makers of sail, carpenters, and such laborers are very necessary in the navy.

(B) The Navy Department : —

Bureau of Navigation, Bureau of Yards and Docks, Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting, Bureau of Ordnance (guns, powder, ammunition, projectiles, torpedoes, mines, aeroplanes). Bureau of Construc- tion and Repairs, Bureau of Steam Engineering, Bureau of Supplies and Accounts (clothes, food, shel- ter, etc.), Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (hygiene, sanitation, and relation to Red Cross).

Land and naval forces. At home, — for protection of coasts and boundaries; for development of land and sea construction; for engineering; for service on roads, harbors, canals, rivers, etc.

SPECIAL TOPICS

What the War Department has done for the Philippines, Porto Rico, and Hawaii. The Panama Canal and its federal protection. Coast artillery in times of peace. Improved tactics for the army and the navy. The story of the first Peace Conference. Work of the American Peace League. Peace heroes.

122

PEACE AND THE MILITARY SERVICE

The disastrous effects of the present European war upon the countries involved.

HELPFUL READINGS

Annual Reports of the Secretary of War, Secretary of the Navy, Secretary of the Interior.

Theodore Roosevelt, American Ideals.

Lucia A. Mead, A Primer of the Peace Movement. Ameri- can Peace Society, Boston.

A Course in Citizenship. Authorized by the American School Peace League. Houghton Miffin Co., Boston.

Reports and documents published by the American Peace League and by World Peace Foundation.

David Starr Jordan and H. E. Jordan, War^s Aftermath, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.

William B. Guitteau, Government and Politics in the United States. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.

R. L. Ashley, Government and the Citizen. The Macmillan Co., New York.

C. F. Dole, The American Citizen. D. C. Heath & Co., Boston.

James W. Garner, Government in the United States. Amer- ican Book Co., New York.

Jesse Macy, Our Government. Ginn & Co.," Boston.

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Year-Book^ 1912.

123

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

20. The Department of the Interior

Introductory discussion

When the children hear of the Department of the Interior, they may seem to think that such an agency is very far away from their everyday experiences; but the first questions will bring them into close touch with the work of the vari- ous bureaus of the department. Do you know of any one who has a pension? Why should he or she receive such? Or again, another question immediately receives response: What things do you have in your house or barn or garage that have patent marks upon them? Is there anything in this room with patent marks? Why are pat- ents taken out under the authority of the Gov- ernment? What is meant by the copyright of a book? Look at your textbooks and find the copyright notices in them. Why do we copyright books?

Another set of questions, which will interest the class, although they may never have seen the American red men outside of circuses, are as follows: Throughout the great West there are Indian reservations; who has charge of these reservations and who governs the Indians? How

124

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

does the Indian become an American citizen? The Government protects Indians against what kind of frauds?

In fact the class finds, as they study the vari- ous agencies at work in the name of the Depart- ment of the Interior, that not only they have already touched these agencies in their geography and history lessons, but that all round them there is a constant relationship to their activities.

TOPICS FOR THE BLACKBOARD

(A) The Department of the Interior : —

Bureaus. Land Office. Patent Office. Pension Office. Geological Survey. Reclamation Service. Bureau of Mines. National Parks and Reservations. Territories (including Hawaii and excluding insular possessions). Indian Affairs. Education. Hospitals for federal soldiers and dependents. American an- tiquities (see historic ships, houses, etc.). Capitol Buildings and Grounds. Howard University.

Further discussion

As it is impossible to take into consideration the work of all and each of these bureaus, the Patent Office, the Pensions, and the Indians seem to offer the most varied fields of work, although Parks and Reservations appeal to the class, and if they have not been discussed in the chapter on Parks and Play-

125

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

grounds, it is well to investigate to some extent the subject in its close connection with the Department of the Interior.

Patent Office

Applications for patent for invention; applications for patent for designs; applications for reissue of patents; applications for registration of prints; trade- marks; registration of labels.

Requirements: To file with each application a signed and attested drawing, together with two photo- graphic copies of such signed and attested drawing.

Pensions

War of Revolution (based on estimates); War of 1 812 (service pension) ; Indian wars (service pension) ; War with Mexico (service pension) ; Civil War (serv- ice pension) ; Spanish War (service pension) ; Regu- lar Establishment (army and navy service).

Prevention of fraud: By strict identification and in- dorsement; strict provisions for punishment of fraud.

Indian Service

Three hundred and twenty-three thousand In- dians, one third of whom belong to the Five Civil- ized Tribes in Oklahoma.

Aims. To preserve and develop Indian property; to develop citizenship; to lift standards of living by industrial training, general education, and super- vision of health and morals.

126

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Special agencies. Care of allotted and unallot- ted land; development of soils; irrigation; forestry; timber depredations ; construction of schools and churches; advance of agriculture and stock-raising.

SPECIAL TOPICS

Work of the Rosebud Reservation. Life in an Indian school. Reclamation of desert land. Field service with the Geological Survey. Agricultural possibilities in Alaska. What the Federal Bureau of Education is doing for the school children.

HELPFUL READINGS

Annual Reports of the Department of the Interior, and of special bureaus under the Department.

Reports from Indian schools and colleges.

American histories discussing our boiuidaries and our colonial possessions.

Albert Bushnell Hart, Actual Government. Longmans, Green & Co., New York.

W. W. Willoughby, Rights and Duties of American Citizen- ship. American Book Co., New York.

William B. Guitteau, Government and Politics in the United States. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.

James and Sanford, Government in State and Nation, Chas. Scribner's Sons, New York. ^

127

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

21. The Department of State

Introductory discussion

The newspapers, weeklies, and current maga- zines come into the homes of almost all children. Foreign news and domestic affairs appear in big headlines. Moreover, the history and geography work constantly refers to treaties and interna- tional relationship. The children of foreigners know the word "consul" and all that it means in the way of possible protection. The consular service is a point of so much and so varied inter- est it offers a group of questions at once as an ap- proach to the lesson.

There are over twelve hundred officials in the consular service of the United States. Why should we need so many consuls sent to ports and cities all over the world? Why should so many consuls represent foreign countries in our ports and inland cities? In times of peace, do our con- suls have other interests besides protecting our seamen and serving American citizens who are traveling abroad and connected with business interests in foreign countries? (If the class has made a close study of the activities of the Agricultural Department, they will already know

128

THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE

much about the reports sent by the consuls which describe most graphically the work of the great markets abroad and the natural development which is going on in foreign countries in com- petition with the United States.) If a consul is situated in certain non-Christian territory, he has jurisdiction over all criminal cases where American citizens are involved; why is this nec- essary? On the other hand, our immigrants, and foreign persons who are traveling in the country, present themselves in the United States to the protection of their representatives, both foreign ministers and foreign consuls; why is this so very necessary? What different service is rendered by a minister to another country and by a consul in the same country? When does it become neces- sary to use the title "ambassador"? Who are envoys extraordinary, and ministers plenipoten- tiary? Who are charges d^af aires ?

TOPICS FOR THE BLACKBOARD

{A) Diplomatic service : —

Four grades of officials with rank as follows: Ambassadors, Envoys Extraordinary, Ministers Plenipotentiary, and Charges d^ Affaires.

Consular Service : —

Consuls-General, Consuls, Consular Agents.

129

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

Official duties of the Department : —

Treaty-making in conjunction with the President and the Cabinet and the Senate.

To uphold the honor of the United States.

To investigate international relations.

To investigate possible insults.

To recall consuls and ministers in time of war.

To give recognition to new countries. (See Chinese Republic, Albania, etc.)

To control all proclamations admitting new States to the Union.

To control trade relations between South American countries and the United States, Atlantic and Gulf seaports.

To conduct all correspondence of the United States with colonies and foreign countries.

SPECIAL TOPICS

The Seal of the United States. The Peace Confer- ence of Portsmouth. The A. B. C. Conference in Ni- agara Falls. Making a new State (Oklahoma). The homes of our diplomatic members abroad. Visits to foreign ambassadors at Washington. Letters written from members of the diplomatic service or consular service abroad (William Dean Howells, James Russell Lowell, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and others). The work of John Hay, and "The Open Door."

130

THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE

HELPFUL READINGS

Annual Reports of the Secretary of State.

Reports of the Bureau of Consular Service and Diplo- matic Service.

James W. Garner, Government in the United States. Amer- ican Book Co., New York.

Jesse Macy, Our Government. Ginn & Co., Boston.

C. F. Dole, The American Citizen. D. C. Heath & Co., Boston.

William B. Guitteau, Government and Politics in the United States. Houghton MiflBiin Co., Boston.

James Bryce, The American Commonwealth. The Mac- millan Co., New York.

James and Sanford, Government in State and Nation. Chas. Scribner's Sons, New York.

Albert Bushnell Hart, Actual Government. Longmans,

f Green & Co., New York.

John W. Foster, A Century of American Diplomacy. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.

131

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

22. Civil Service

Introductory discussion

There is no reason why the pupils in schools should not be taught to look forward to serving the Government as well as to farming, or to a trade or to a profession. Teachers will be render- ing a service to the country and to the individual pupil if they present the activities of the Civil Service Bureau in such a way as to make an appeal to the student which will some day lead him to take the examination in the classified serv- ice. There are more than 236,000 federal offi- cials and employees, all of them working in rela- tion to the cabinet departments. Most of these employees have passed civil service examinations. Each State has also adopted the idea of civil serv- ice, and in cities and towns the political pull which had developed out of the spoils system has been in great part done away with.

Do policemen and firemen in your town pass the state civil service examinations in order to hold their positions? Are the clerks in the mu- nicipal government also imder the civil service rules? Why should there be "classified service '7 Why should the examinations for the four groups

132

CIVIL SERVICE

of clerks in the classified service be subject to very different kinds of examinations? In order to meet the civil service examinations the candi- date presents himself before a committee of three persons, not more than two of whom shall be of the same party in politics. Why is this? When the spoils system settled the matter of Govern- ment employees, what happened every four years? In municipal politics, if the men were exchanged every year or two because of their party, what would occur in all probability? A man in the classified service has an entire right to vote as he pleases, and to express privately his opinions on all political subjects, but he should not take any active part in political management or in political campaigns, for precisely the same reason that a judge, an army officer, a regular soldier, or a policeman is debarred from taking such active part. It leaves him free to vote, to think, and to speak privately as he chooses, but it prevents him while in the service of the whole country from turning his official position to the benefit of one of the parties into which the whole country is divided; and in no other way can this be pre- vented.

^33

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

TOPICS FOR THE BLACKBOARD

(A) Civil Service: —

The Federal Commission. Appointed by Govern- ment.

Duties: To appoint examiners; to arrange for exam- inations; to appoint minor registers, and so on; to make reports to the Government; to keep records; to make necessary investigations and to summon witnesses; to take oaths and testimony when neces- sary. Has the right to make rules and regulations.

Applications for positions: Statement of names: names of parents, birthplace, occupation, citizenship.

Examinations: (i) An educational test by exami- nation. (2) A physical test.

Promotions : According to rules made by commis- sioners, based upon length of service and good behavior.

Veterans^ preference : (This topic may be offered by a boy whose grandfather served in the army and navy during the Civil War.)

(As the States have passed acts which give to their governors the right to appoint a state commission, all cities which choose to use the civil service pro- cedure turn to the state commission for the laws, the examinations, and extension of the state regulations. This gives uniformity throughout the State and in every case the rules agree with the federal regula- tions.)

134

CIVIL SERVICE

SPECIAL TOPICS

The spoils system under Jackson. The history of the Civil Service Reform Movement. Story of a clerk employee in the Department of Agriculture (his opportunity in research to advance the health and opportunities and standards of the farming popula- tion all over the United States). The clerkship in the consular service (the adventures of a young man who wishes to see the big world). A clerkship in the diplomatic service.

HELPFUL READINGS

Annual Reports of Federal Civil Service Commission.

State Reports of Civil Service Commissions.

Albert Bushnell Hart, Actual Government. Longmans, Green & Co., New York.

W. W. Willoughby, Rights and Duties of American Citizen- ship. American Book Co., New York.

C. F. Dole, The American Citizen. D. C. Heath & Co., Boston.

James and Sanford, Government in State and Nation. Chas. Scribner's Sons. New York.

Printed bulletins issued by Civil Service Reform Associa- tions.

135

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

23. The Treasury Department

Introductory discussion

Who has any money in his pocket? Coppers, nickels, dimes, quarters, half-dollars, silver dol- lars, paper money? The questions come thick and fast when the teacher discusses the varied activities of the Treasury Department. The Mint is, of course, the first bureau which the children will enjoy investigating. From the time the money is mined until it jingles in his pocket the process is entertaining as well as instructive. If the teacher lives near a bank and can borrow all kinds of bank notes and certificates, coins and un- usual gold pieces, she will find the members of the class much interested. Studying the facts of Gov- ernment paper money will lead to a discussion of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and the question of counterfeits, and the secret service division. Then will follow topics upon revenue and customs, national banks and financial budg- ets. If it costs our nation more than two billions of dollars to pay the bills of all the departments represented in the cabinet, these questions will naturally arise: Where did all that money come from? To what department did the apportion-

136

THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT

ment go? This group of lessons will be very closely allied to history; the Federal Constitu- tion will be needed in the class in order that the children may note that Congress has a right to levy and collect taxes, to borrow money, to coin money, and to make laws concerning bankruptcy.

TOPICS FOR THE BLACKBOARD

(A) The Treasury Department : —

The Secretary of the Treasury, two Assistant Secretaries, two Comptrollers, six Auditors, one Treasurer, one Register, Commissioner of Customs, Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Comptroller of Currency, National Banks, the Mint, Bureau of En- graving and Printing, Bureau of Statistics, Revenue Cutter Service.

Further discussion

The most vital topic among the preceding ones to discuss before the class is the matter of customs houses and smuggling. Our national system of taxa- tion, indirect and hardly felt by the majority of people, is a far better system than exists in most countries. To attempt to evade duties is not only a crime, but an evidence of disloyalty to our country and institutions. Is a man truly patriotic who puts out an American flag on holidays, but attempts to bring into the country undeclared goods for which he should pay customs duties? Why are customs

137

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

duties between the Philippines and the United States of exactly the same importance as those between England and the United States? What is the greatest temptation for inspectors at the wharves? What hap- pens if the appraisement of goods is deemed unjust?

SPECIAL TOPICS

The story of the Postal Savings Banks. What makes a panic? The need of a gold standard. Gov- ernment ownership of gold mines.

HELPFUL READINGS

Annual Reports of the Secretary of the Treasury.

Annual Reports of State Treasury Departments.

William B. Guitteau, Government and Politics in the United States. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.

Albert Bushnell Hart, Actiial Government. Longmans, Green & Co., New York.

C. F. Dole, The American Citizen. D. C. Heath & Co., Boston.

James and Sanford, Government in State and Nation. Chas. Scribner's Sons, New York.

Jesse Macy, Our Government. Ginn & Co., Boston.

James Bryce, The American Commonwealth. The Mac- millan Co., New York.

James W. Garner, Government in the United States. Amer- ican Book Co., New York.

138

THE MACHINERY OF GOVERNMENT

24. The machinery of government

Introductory discussion

That there is a mayor or a commission to gov- ern the city, or that selectmen govern a town, is no new fact to the children who are old enough to study community civics. But just how the authority has come about, and why we are con- stantly saying that a democracy is a government of the people, for the people, and by the people, may not be wholly understood. Questions will soon set the class to thinking. Who is the mayor of our city? Or who are the selectmen of the town? Or have we a commission form of government? How did the persons holding these positions receive their authority? What other positions in the municipality are conferred by election? What positions in the government are held by appointment? Where a city has a large coun- cil or a board of aldermen and a board of coun- cilors together, what harm may grow up that cannot easily be traced by the people? Why should positions upon school boards be a matter for election instead of appointment? Does the Water Board receive its authority from the peo- ple upon election or by appointment? How are

139

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

other municipal departments filled? What are the municipal departments? Why are cities re- organizing their charters, or making new charters altogether? What party politics are most in evi- dence in your city or town? Does a party have to receive any state authority before calling together its members at a caucus? What is meant by a caucus or primary? Why are "direct primaries" becoming more and more important as a means to express a people's wishes. What is meant by a city committee of any political party? a state committee? the national committee? What big parties have these committees at work all the time? Are such organizations necessary? What financial support is given to these committees? From what source does such support come? Why should federal and state civil service clerks and officials holding any government position be de- nied the privilege of giving financial support to political committees? If a national committee of any party wishes to bring about a presidential convention, what steps are taken through the committees to send delegates to the convention?

TOPICS FOR THE BLACKBOARD

Caucus or primary, nomination, campaign work (oratory, literature, parades), election.

140

THE MACHINERY OF GOVERNMENT

City committee, county committee, state commit- tee, national committee.

Primaries, county conventions, state conventions, national conventions, the meeting of the electors, presidential election.

Primaries, state officials, governor, nomination, election.

• Discussion

Who may vote? What is a ballot? What is the Australian ballot? What is the voting booth? What are polling places? What is registration? What is a challenge? How are the votes counted? What is a recount? What'is a party boss? What is the differ- ence between a party boss and leadership in political life? What do we mean by "stand pat?" By "straight party ticket"? By a "slate"? By the "machine"? By corrupt voting? By bribery? What is meant by a " split ticket "? By non-partisan clubs? By citizens' movements? By the recall? By the referendum? By the initiative? In how many States do women vote under the same conditions as do men? What are the obligations of the honest voter? What is graft? What kinds of graft are there beside gifts of money? Why should every citizen who votes feel that he has a high and noble privilege?

How does the representative from our ward or dis- trict through the legislature affect our community life? Do you know whom the voters chose at the last election to represent us at the State House? What

141

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

does he stand for politically? What immediate inter- ests in our community ought to be furthered and bettered by his influence in the House of Representa- tives? Who is the senator from our district? Why was he chosen? What is his important relation be- tween your district and the State? What special state officials come in contact with the life in all the larger and smaller communities of a State? (See members of the State Board of Health, State Board of Charity, etc.)

Governor; lieutenant-governor (sometimes); coun- cil (sometimes); governor's staff (by appointment); official relationship to the legislature, the miUtia, and the courts; departments of state; commissions; boards; bureaus; national guard; courts.

Legislature, senators and representatives; official relationship to petitions; law-making body, together with governor.

State constitutions; state rights and privileges; rights and privileges of the citizens of the State.

Further discussion

Because of the study of United States history, the class will be pretty well equipped with data concern- ing the President, the cabinet officials. Congress, and the Supreme Court. Almost at once, from their gen- eral information, a digest for study will materialize for the blackboard. However, before discussing the machinery of the government at Washington, the teacher should discover whether the class knows who

142

THE MACHINERY OF GOVERNMENT

the Congressman is from the district, and why he was chosen by the people. Also who the senators are, and why they seem to be men so important as to repre^ sent the State in national affairs. What have recent Congressmen done for our district? What is the Con- gressman who represents us now urging upon Con- gress in order to please his constituency here at home? Why do our Senators take a stand for or against high tariff? the income tax? the extension of parcel post? higher rates for railroads? At this point the children will find it necessary to read the news- papers very carefully in order to keep in touch with the actual problems at Washington in which our Congressmen and Senators are taking part.

The President and his cabinet; Congress, the House of Representatives and senate; important committees; lobbying; the Congressional Record; the Constitution of the United States, its interpretation, the elastic clause; the Monroe Doctrine; the expan- sion of the United States; economic problems; gov- ernment control; government ownership; govern- ment operation; the decisions of the Supreme Court; the relation of the Supreme Court to state courts and to circuit courts.

SPECIAL TOPICS

The story of a presidential convention. Getting ready for a caucus. An election parade. Secret meet- ings in a state convention. The machine government of a political party. The story of Tammany.

143

THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

HELPFUL READINGS

Reports of the Town.

Reports of the Municipal Government.

Campaign literature from the City Committees, from the

State Committees, from the National Committees. Albert Bushnell Hart, Actual Government. Longmans,

Green & Co., New York. Frederic C. Howe, The City. Scribner's Sons, New York. D. F. Wilcox, "Party Government in Cities," Political

Science Quarterly, vol. xrv. Frank J. Goodnow, City Government in the United States.

Century Co., New York. James Bryce, American Commonwealth. The Macmillan

Co., New York. W. W. Willoughby, Rights and Duties of American Citizen- ship. American Book Co., New York. Jesse Macy, Party Organization. Century Co., New York. William B. Guitteau, Government and Politics in the

United States. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston. R. L. Ashley, Government and the Citizen. The Macmillan

Co., New York. John Fiske, Civil Government. Houghton Mifflin Co.,

Boston. F. B. Vrooman, The New Politics, Oxford Press, New

York.

OUTLINE

PART I. THE PROBLEM OF CIVICS TEACHING

I. Civic Education in the Schools .... 3

1. The new humanities in college and univer-

sity 3

2. The need of civic education in elementary

and secondary schools 4

II. Old and New Methods of Teaching Civics 9

1. The old method 9

2. Investigations and reports on civics teaching 1 1 III Civics in Child Life 13

1. Civics in the home 14

2. Civics on the playground 17

3. Civics in neighborhood life 18

IV. Civics for Older Pupils 20

1. The extension of civic interests .... 20

2. Local points of attack ....... 20

3. Converting intelligence into will ... 21

4. Supplementing texts with other materials . 25

5. Collecting materials as a service to the

school 26

6. The teacher's method of cooperation . . 28

PART II. SUGGESTIONS FOR THE TEACHING OF CIVICS

V. The Function of the Suggestive Lessons

Presented 33

14s

OUTLINE

1. The nature of the topics chosen .... 33

2. Timeliness in their use 34

3. The use of digests and summaries • • • 35 VI. Suggestive Lessons 37

1. Community health 37

2. Protection of life and property .... 45

3. Public highways and streets 49

4. Public recreation 54

^ 5. Public education ^g

6. Public Ubraries 5t

7. Care of dependents 67

8. Public utilities ya

9. Review of community life ...... yr

10. The problem of immigration 80

11. Naturalization 8^

12. Rights and privileges of citizenship . . 8y

13. Organization of a Junior Civic League . . 92

14. Postal service 97

15. The regulation of labor 102

16. Industries 105

17. The Department of Agriculture . . . 108

18. The Bureau of Commerce 116

19. Peace and the military service . . . .119

20. The Department of the Interior . . . .124

21. The Department of State 128

22. Civil Service 132

23. The Treasury Department 136

24. The machinery of government .... 139

RIVERSIDE EDUCATIONAL MONOGRAPHS

GENERAL EDUCATIONAL THEORY

Dkwiet's moral PKINCIPLES IN EDUCATION 85

Eliot's EDUCATION POR EFFICIENCY 85

Eliot's CONCRETE AND PRACTICAL IN MODERN EDUCATION 36

Emerson's EDUCATION 86

FiSKE's THE MEANING OP INFANCY 86

Hyde's THE TEACHER'S PHILOSOPHY 86

Palmer's THE IDEAL TEACHER 86

Pbosser's THE TEACHER AND OLD AOE 60

Tkrmam's THE TEACHER'S HEALTH 60

Thobxdike's INDIVIDUALITY 86

ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS

Betts'8 NEW IDEALS IN RURAL SCHOOLS 60

Bloomfield's VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE OF YOUTH 60

Cabot's VOLUNTEER HELP TO THE SCHOOLS 60

Cole's INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 36

CuBBEBLEY's OHANOINO CONCEPTIONS OF EDUCATION 35

CuBBEBLEY's THE IMPROVEMENT OF RURAL SCHOOLS 85

Lewis's DEMOCRACY'S HIGH SCHOOL 60

Peeby's STATUS OP THE TEACHER 86

SiTEDDEN's THE PROBLEM OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 85

Tbowbridoe's the home SCHOOL 60

Wekks's the PEOPLE'S SCHOOL 60

METHODS OF TEACHING

Bailkt's art education 60

Betts's the recitation 60

Campaonac's THE TEACHING OF COMPOSITION 85

CoOLKY's LANGUAGE TEACHING IN THE GRADES 85

Dewey's INTEREST AND EFFORT IN EDUCATION 60

Eabhart's TEACHING CHILDREN TO STUDY 60

EVAHS'S THE TEACHING OF HIGH SCHOOL MATHEMATICS 86

Faibchild's the TEACHING OP POETRY IN THE HIGH SCHOOL 60

Feeemam's THE TEACHING OF HANDWRITING 60

Halibubtok akB Smith's TEACHING POETRY IN THE GRADES 60

Haetwell's the TEACHING OF HISTORY 86

Haynes's ECONOMICS IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 60

Hill's THE TEACHING OF CIVICS. | 60

Kilpatrick's the MONTESSORI SYSTEM EXAMINED 36

Palmeb's ETHICAL AND MORAL INSTRUCTION IN THE SCHOOLS.. .36

Palmkb's SELF-CULTIVATION IN ENGLISH 86

SnrzALLO's THE TEACHING OF PRHAARY ARITHMETIO «0

SuxZAlLO'8 THE TEACHINO OF SPELLING 60

i8i6

RIVERSIDE TEXTBCX)KS IN EDUCATION

Edited by Ellwood P. Cubberley, Head of the Department of Education, Leland Stanford, Jr., University.

The editor and the publishers have most carefully planned this series to meet the needs of students of education in colleges and universities, in normal schools, and in teachers' training courses in high schools. The books will also be equally well adapted to teachers' reading circles and to the wide-awake, professionally ambitious superintendent and teacher. Each book presented in the series will embody the results of the latest research, and will be at the same time both scientifically accurate, and simple, clear, and interest- ing in style.

The Riverside Textbooks in Education will eventually contain books on the following subjects : —

I. History of Education. — 2. Public Education in Amer- ica. — 3. Theory of Education. — 4. Principles of Teaching.

— 5. School and Class Management. — 6. School Hygiene,

— 7. School Administration. — 8. Secondary Education. — • 9. Educational Psychology. — 10. Educational Sociology.

— II. The Curriculum. — 12. Special Methods.

Now Ready ♦RURAL LIFE AND EDUCATION.

By Ellwood p. CuBBHRLHV. $i.f,o net. Postpaid. Illustrated.

♦THE HYGIENE OF THE SCHOOL CHILD.

By Lewis M. Tbrman, Associate Professor of Education, Leland Stanford Junior University. $1.6$ mi. Postpaid. Illustrated.

♦THE EVOLUTION OF THE EDUCATIONAL IDEAL.

By Mabel Irbnh Embrson, First Assistant in Charge, George Bancroft School, Boston. $1.00 net. Postpaid.

♦HEALTH WORK IN THE SCHOOLS.

By Ernest B. Hoag, Medical Director, Long Beach City Schools, California, and Lewis M. Terman. Illustrated. $1.60 net. Post- paid.

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO

1119

THIS BOOK IS DUE OK THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW

^^^^ITIJs^^J^O^ 25 CENTS

TH.S BOOK In THE Dat/:""""^ ^° "^^""^ WILL INCREASE TO soILt^o ''"^ '°^^*^-^ DAY AND TO S100 ON T„^- "^''°''""

OVERDUE. ^ ^"^ SEVENTH DAY

FEB 6 1935

-20

J935

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6

J93S

Dec

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LD 21-50to-1,*3;

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UNIVERSITY OF^AUF9RNIA lllBRARY