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When the curtain rose the high school chorus of over fifty voices came forward and sang a stirring chorus, "Song of the Vikings. At the end of the song the chorus broke ranks and a high school boy in Viking costume stepped out and spoke "I am a Viking Bold."

The next event commemorated was the discovery of America. Seven views of the life of Columbus were thrown upon the screen, which had been dropped behind the speaker. Dawn revealing the new world was followed by a tableau showing Columbus and his sailors in the new world, with the Indians gazing in awe-struck wonder at the newcomers.

The year 1620 marked the landing of the Pilgrims. A chorus, "The Pilgrim Fathers," and a view, "The Landing of the Pilgrims," represented this event.

The work of the Jesuit priests in the west was brought to the minds of the people by a tableau showing Marquette surrounded by Indians, who are eagerly listening to his words.

The French and Indian War was shown by the three views indicated in the program.

The number that seemed to arouse the most enthusiasm was the peroration of Patrick Henry's speech on liberty, delivered by one of the high school boys. He had scarcely finished when the roll of drums and the music of the fife were heard, and a moment later the curtain rose showing an old man playing a fife, and two boys, one beating a drum, the other

bearing a flag. This tableau was modeled after the famous painting, "The Spirit of '76."

Pupils from the grades also assisted. At this point a little seventh grader came out and sang "Yankee Doodle." Very few people had heard the whole song, and the little fellow in his white trousers and old-fashioned suit captured everyone's heart. Then came the views of the Revolutionary War. Following the views was a "Flag Drill Commemorating the Birth of the American Flag.' This was given by eighteen bright little girls from the lower grades. After more views of the Revolutionary War, a very miniature George and Martha Washington appeared (represented by a kindergarten boy and girl), looking exactly as if they had stepped out of an old picture and did not quite understand how they happened to be here.

Three views of the War with England in 1812, refreshed the minds of the people as to the principal events of this war.

To indicate the growth of the spirit of nationalism, and to foreshadow the struggle of the Civil War, the closing lines of Webster's reply to Hayne were given.

After two views of the War with Mexico, a little humor was added to the program. An Indian chief, giving his blood-curdling warwhoop, chased a white man across the stage. The tables were soon turned, however, and in a few. minutes back came "the noble red man of the forest" pursued by the white man. Such is the change that has taken place in the setlement of the west.

Two interesting tableaux and several views of the Civil War came next. The first tableau showed "Columbia Weeping" for her slaves. She soon became a rejoicing Columbia, the change being brought about by the appearance of Lincoln bearing in his hand the Emancipation Proclamation.

The tenting scene was given by several boys who had been in the Spanish-American war. They made the scene quite realistic. During the time they were on the stage, a male chorus back of the scenes sang "Tenting to-night" which added very much to the impressiveness of the scene. This was followed by an illustrated song "Marching through Georgia," the chorus standing behind the behind the screen and out of sight.

The next declamation was "Our Flag After 100 Years," taken from Henry Ward Beecher's oration on the flag.

After the stormy scenes of the civil war came the era of prosperity. A chorus entitled, "The Miller's Wooing" with love and prosperity for its theme, marked this period.

Two series of views followed. One set

showed views of the World's Fair of 1893, the other, pictures of the Spanish-American war. Then a declamation, "Our Gallant Commodore." Of course the name of Dewey is all that is necessary to bring American people to their feet.

Eleven maps showing the expansion of the United States through successive acquisitions of terrtiory, were thrown on the screen. They showed our country from the time it was a little strip along the Atlantic coast to the present date, with the additions lately made, and then, taking a peep into the future, the United States was shown to have grown until it covered the whole globe. It is not a bad stroke to let an audience laugh occasionally, even at school entertainments, provided the occasion is skillfully manufactured.

To add variety to the program, and bring out a fact as well, another little "quip" was given. A stout figure immaculately dressed, was discovered trying to carry away the earth. The name of the stout lad, "Standard Oil Co.," was printed on his back. Uncle Sam discovered the danger, and coming to the rescue put the monopolist to shame, telling him to drop that earth as it belonged to the people. Needless to say, the audience saw the point.

The chart showing the industrial greatness of the United States gave graphically the relative amount of the productions of our country and those of the rest of the world.

The address on "Our Relation to Foreign Powers" gives an opportunity to unify the program and to express the spirit of the average high school boys.

Perhaps the most elaborate, and one of the most pleasing numbers of the program was the "Salute of the Flags of the Nations." Each country was represented by a boy and a girl dressed in native costume, carrying the flag of their nation. Each couple advanced to the national air of the country they represented, marched around the stage, and then took places at the side. The last to appear

were Uncle Sam, with the globe under his arm, and Columbia, protecting Cuba. Columbia was represented by the tallest girl in the high school, and Cuba by a smaller girl. These three immediately became the center of attraction. After a rousing chorus, "Washington," the tableau, International Peace" was shown. In the center of the stage were Uncle Sam, Columbia, and Cuba, and grouped around in various attidues of respect were all the foreign nations, and the various personages represented in the entertainment.

This tableau closed the program. Every

one felt he was a better American for having attended the entertainment. The work of getting up the program was so evenly divided, and each one did his part so faithfully, that no one felt as if he had been overtaxed. A HIGH SCHOOL GRADUAte.

PUPIL GOVERNMENT AS A MEANS OF TEACHING CITIZENSHIP.

The experiment in a number of Chicago schools in the better teaching of the practical duties of citizenship, through the introduction, to a greater or less degree, of pupil government, has, within the last few months, attracted wide attention among educators.

neglect this opportunity, or rather duty, and conduct our schools as our grandfathers didexcept the rod.

We still have little monarchies, with the teacher for monarch, and the children the unwilling subjects. The monarch is responsible

The

for law and order and must enforce it. chief study of the little subject is to "escape the law" by avoiding detection; by banding together against the monarch-the teacher. This kind of teaching of civic duties will be sure to fail, as it is failing in our large cities. Instead of making citizens who are interested in seeing law enforced and wrong exposed, they continue the tactics taught them for long years in the schoolroom, of letting those in authority detect wrong, and enforce law, order and honesty if they can.

About 15,000 children in large grammar schools in Chicago are now working under what is known as the "Citizen" and "Tribune" Plan, first adopted three years ago in the John Crerar school, of Chicago. The success that has attended it in this school began to attract attention, and for the past four months the writer has found it impossible to answer all the inquiries that have come from all parts of the country, asking for details of the plan. This inquiry has come from the most distant states as freely as from near localities. The pin manufacturers are receiving orders for "Citizen" pins from all parts of the country, particularly is the movement active in California and Oregon.

In Wisconsin the plan has been put in force

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As in school he was either a passive cipher in influence or an active conniver at disorder, so he continues what he was taught in school, in his civic adult life. The writer firmly believes that to the wrong teaching of civic duties in our public schools is due most directly, the cause of the lamentable failure of government, and honest administration of law in our

in quite a number of schools in Racine, Milwaukee, and in many small towns. It is in the hope of more generally helping the teachers of your state to an intelligent understanding of the plan that I send this brief account for publication in your valued paper. How to Introduce It.

JOHN CRERAR
SCHOOL

ALL-BY

ALL-FOR ALL

large cities.

Let the teacher begin by having a talk with her pupils about their school life and their relations to each other in the school community. Let her lead them to see that a school community, like any other community, is just what the citizens of that school or community see fit to make. That each is affected by the conduct of others, and should therefore be concerned in what the individual or the whole may do. If a majority are for order, polite and considerate conduct, and honest work, then the school can have it. If good pupils hide from the teacher the wrong conduct of others and leave it to the teacher, then the teachers must introduce, or rather continue, an espionage over the pupils at all times, that makes the school a prison, and teaches the pupils to cultivate habits of dishonesty and deception, and leaves, a weakness in all moral conduct that relates to community life.

The duties of citizenship have too long been taught theoretically from books. Indeed in our elementary schools it is scarcely taught at all, unless to a few pupils in the seventh or eighth grades. Yet this is the day of practical "laboratory methods." The teacher with his school, whether it is the "little red schoolhouse," with a dozen pupils, or an over grown city school with a thousand children, has the material at hand for the most practical kind of teaching in this subject. From the first day the child enters school till the day he graduates from the high school, the child can, and should be taught to become an active part of a democratic government in school that he may be fitted for citizenship in a great democracy in adult life.

Yet we

Let pupils be appealed to, to stand for good conduct and right actions in their schoolmates. Encourage the rightly disposed children to make their influence felt. They are always in a majority and if they will but assert themselves they can make their influence felt in the school. Appeal to them to learn to govern themselves out of the presence of the teacher and to help to govern others by their personal efforts to influence them for right.

Have the pupils see that there is a wide difference between idle tattling and a manly

exposure of wrong conduct that a pupil is unwilling to correct.

Now, how shall this be accomplished, how can a teacher so organize his school that he can bring to his support that majority of children in every school that want to do right themselves, and who can, if rightly approached, be as influential as the teacher in controling the thoughtless minority for right conduct.

Tribune and Citizen Plan.

In the John Crerar school, Chicago, the plan in successful operation for the last three years is very simple and direct. Pupils are not expected to make rules or to deal out penalties to offenders. They are expected simply to do right themselves, and to try to have their schoolmates do right.

If

The "Tribunes" elected every month in each room are not monitors, or captains, or bosses. They are simply protectors of the rights of the children, the official representatives of the room on all questions relating to good order and proper conduct. They are to warn offenders, to listen to complaints, to protect the weak against the strong by kindly admonition. If all this fails they then must report the matter to the teacher, who then acts when the pupil's influence fails. The only punishment administered is the separation of the offender from the other children, and the withdrawing of the privileges he has abused until he is ready to go voluntarily to the pupil officer and pledge proper conduct in future. The teacher then restores it on request of the tribune.

"Citizens" are those persons whom the pupils and teachers compliment for faithful school duties by electing to the honor. They wear a pin to designate them, and this pin is forfeited and removed whenever an act unworthy of a good pupil takes place. The reward of continued good influence, and conduct by making pupils citizens is the most powerful incentive to self-control we have in the school. The keenest rebuke that can come to a child is the removal of the citizen pin and the privileges citizenship confers.

New citizens are made in a formal manner at the time of the installing of the Tribunes, the first of every month. Parents and pupils alike are proud of this distinction. It is a reward that is a perpetual compliment to the wearer. Neither money, brilliancy of intellect, nor any other virtue, except moral worth and personal self-control can procure it.

These pins were originally designed for the John Crerar School, but there has been such a demand for them that the cuts have been turned over to A. O. Walworth & Co., 327

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My Dear Dr. Stearns: In reply to your favor of March 19th, asking for a general account of the attempt we have made to teach civics-the nature of the American government in its relation to every day life-to the pupils of all the grades in our school without the use of text-books, I submit the following:

We believe that text-book instruction in civics in a grammar school can at best only supplement the lessons which must be learned by performing faithfully the duties which devolve upon the children in their relation to their fellows at school and upon the street. By making pupils conscious that they are a part of the civic body, and that they must prepare to take upon themselves the burdens which citizenship carries while at school, a more intelligent attitude towards the body politic may be established, which will last forever and better prepare these young people for the real duties of life and make them better citizens. (See pamphlet for further ideas,

etc.).

We have used this plan more than a year and instead of interest lagging the pupils have become more and more interested from month to month. The number of citizens has increased greatly and the quality of the work done by officers has steadily improved as a more thorough knowledge of the powers and duties has been gained.

It will be noticed that partisan politics can not possibly result from this method of teaching in which office-holding is a reward of merit and not the result of personal ambition, party or personal preferment-the list of officers being virtually a "roll of honor." This teaching must necessarily result in higher ideals in government, leading to a reform of our method of municipal government and purer politics. Children have become awakened in a wonderful degree to the idea of the duties of citizenship and the methods by which a city is governed. From a knowledge of the machinery

of city government, state and national governments have been easily understood by children who have not reached the upper grammar grades. More than half our boys leave school without reaching the eighth grade in which formal lessons in civics are given. It is principally for these less fortunate pupils that this method of instruction is employed, and it is so interwoven into the school life outside of class-room work that no interference with other branches of study is noticed. All meetings of the different departments of government take place after the close of school. Self-government is aimed at as far as possible at all times and in all places in and without the school, and the machinery of government is as simple as possible, and yet as nearly like the Milwaukee municipal government as circumstances will permit.

Difficulties.

The great majority of the parents of our pupils are foreign born and (as far as their education goes) of foreign school training. The idea of a public school conducted according to democratic principles of government was at first very greatly condemned. However, after considerable agitation which led these parents to investigate, they have concluded (most of them) that the idea is a very excellent one for the proper training of their children, who will be the best kind of American citizens. You will find many points in the pamphlet which contains my views of the plan, its results, etc., and the charter in full.

I have not prepared a set article for your paper since I prefer to have you select from the matter sent such ideas as best suit your purpose in putting this scheme before the teachers of the state. You will see from the Sentinel of Monday April 10th (editoral column) that it has some friends.

Pres. Hoyt of the Milwaukee School Board says "it is an extremely good and practical plan of teaching civics." The Municipal League most heartily endorse it, calling it a "great idea" to be perfected for the reform of municipal government. Robert C. Spencer speaks of it as the best plan he has ever heard of for teaching practical civics. Most of the members of the Milwaukee School Board speak enthusiastically in its favor. I have printed 2,500 copies of this enclosed pamphlet for free distribution so as to explain the plan and purpose of the idea. I do not know of a single I do not know of a single English speaking man or women in Milwaukee who speaks of it other than in terms of approval and praise.

The plan is only in its experimental stage but enough good results have been secured to

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The Mission of the Public Schools.

The primary aim and end of the American public school system is the training of the youth of our land for higher ideals of citizenship.

This public school system is supported by the government and education made compulsory for the express purpose of improving the general civilization of the masses of our citizens. Millions of dollars are spent annually for education, and many more millions for the prevention, suppression, and punishment of crime, which the proper education of our youth should tend to eradicate or lessen.

The Government of a School Should be Democratic, Not Autocratic.

We boast of living under the banner of the best government ever devised and established by man-a government whose fundamental principle is liberty and equality; a government deriving its just powers from the consent of the governed; a government by the people, as well as of and for the people, in which the people delegate to their representatives the power to govern.

Such is the government of our nation, state and city; but how do we govern in our schools? The greatest weakness of our schools to-day is found in the administration of their government, which is diametrically opposite in theory and practice to the fundamental principles found in the American constitution and in the declaration of independence.

"It is the height of absurdity to make the school an autocracy and to substitute an external conscience for the right of self-control. Our schools must be broad, enlightened, and American in the fullest sense of the word, or they have no right to be supported by the public funds."

In the arena of public life the great lever of action for good and suppression of wrong is public opinion. In the schools of our land it is the will of the autocrat, call him or her what you may—principal, superintendent, or teacher. After treating our pupils for eight or ten years as subjects in a little monarchy in

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