The teaching of civics

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

.^^»

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

BOSTON NEW YORK AND CHICAGO

■ 'V

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

/

^ ( -

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

v

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

vi

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

vii

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

viii

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

ix

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

4

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

6

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

7

- 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.

.\

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

9

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.

10

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

II

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. ^

Ill

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

13

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

14

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

15

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

i6

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

17

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

i8

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,

20

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

21

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

22

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

24

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

25

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.

26

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.

88

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.

89

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.

90

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.

91

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?

92

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.

93

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

95

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.

96

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

97

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

99

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

100

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.

102

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-
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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.

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