LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

BUREAU OF EDUCATION,
Washington, June 8, 1915.

SIR: For good citizenship men and women must not only have good will, but an abiding interest in the welfare of the community. They must also have a working knowledge of social agencies, good judgment as to methods of social activities, and a more or less comprehensive understanding of fundamental principles of social life and progress. Much can be done in childhood and in the elementary grades of the school to create interest and give a certain amount of concrete knowledge of particular social activities and agencies, but not until boys and girls have reached the years of adolescence, the high-school age, can they begin to gain any very full understanding of abstract principles of social, civic, and governmental life. Instruction in this subject in the high school is therefore of utmost importance. For use in the high schools many textbooks and manuals have been prepared on this subject, some good and some not so good, but there is still need for good manuals on the subject of community civics that will help teachers to treat the subject in an inductive way and to relate it properly to other subjects and to the past, present, and future life of the students. The manuscript transmitted herewith offers such help, and I therefore recommend that it be published as a bulletin of the Bureau of Education. It was prepared by a special committee of the National Education Association's commission on the reorganization of secondary education. This special committee consists of Prof. J. Lynn Barnard, of the Philadelphia School of Pedagogy; Clarence D. Kingsley, high-school inspector for the Massachusetts State Board of Education; F. W. Carrier, principal of the Wilmington (Mass.) High School; and Arthur William Dunn, special agent in civic education for this bureau.

Respectfully submitted.

The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.

P. P. CLAXTON,

Commissioner.

5

PREFACE.

The substance of this manual was developed in the summer of 1914 when Dr. J. Lynn Barnard, at the invitation of the Massachusetts Board of Education, conducted a course at Hyannis for teachers of community civics. Part of the material used in Dr. Barnard's course was gathered by a committee of Massachusetts teachers consisting of Margaret McGill, Newton High School, chairman; F. W. Carrier, principal Wilmington (Mass.) High School; Walter H. Cushing, principal Framingham High School; Mabel Hill, Dana Hall School, Wellesley; Clarence D. Kingsley, high-school inspector, Massachusetts Board of Education; and Winthrop Tirrell, Boston High School of Commerce. During the past year the undersigned, who were constituted a special committee of the committee on social studies of the National Education Association's commission on reorganization of secondary education, have given much time to the preparation of the manual. The committee desires to acknowledge valuable suggestions from Dr. David Snedden, Commissioner of Education, Massachusetts; Thomas Jesse Jones, of the United States Bureau of Education and chairman of the committee on social studies; and Jessie C. Evans, of the William Penn High School for Girls, Philadelphia.

J. LYNN BARNARD.
F. W. CARRIER.

ARTHUR W. DUNN.

CLARENCE D. KINGSLEY.

June 15, 1915.

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THE TEACHING OF COMMUNITY CIVICS.

PART I.

AIMS AND METHODS IN TEACHING COMMUNITY CIVICS.

I. WHO IS THE GOOD CITIZEN?

The good citizen may be defined as a person who habitually conducts himself with proper regard for the welfare of the communities of which he is a member, and who is active and intelligent in his cooperation with his fellow members to that end.

The welfare both of the individual-and of the community depends upon various factors, such as health, education, recreation, civic beauty, wealth, communication, transportation. In order to secure these elements of welfare the individual and the community are dependent upon many social agencies, such as pure-food laws, schools, playgrounds, parks, factories, post offices, railroads. The usefulness of such social agencies depends upon the intelligence and readiness with which the members of the community establish, direct, and cooperate with them. They may be classified as governmental or voluntary according to the nature of their support.

It is evident, therefore, that the good citizen will possess an abiding interest in the welfare of the community, a working knowledge of social agencies, and good judgment as to those means and methods that will promote one social end without at the same time defeating other social ends. Furthermore, he must have the point of view that progress is essential in order that he may do as well by civilization as did his fathers before him. Every community also needs citizens who possess a large measure of social initiative and the power of leadership.

II. STAGES IN DEVELOPING GOOD CITIZENSHIP.

Training for good citizenship must begin even before the child. enters school and must continue through school, and indeed through life. Four stages in the process are well marked.

1. Before the child enters school he receives from the family life itself his first impressions of cooperation and responsibility. Whether these impressions and the social habits inculcated shall be for good or for ill depends upon the atmosphere and efforts of the