at least been working at this for several years, whereas we in Indianapolis are just beginning, so that the details in our city have not been worked out as fully as they have been in New York. I could add very little, if anything, to what he and the others have said with reference to civics in high schools.

What I may say this afternoon shall be chiefly from the point of view

Civics in

Elementary
Schools

grammar schools.

of civics in the elementary schools. I believe in civics all along the line. There must be civics in the high school; there must be civics in the lower grades; there must be, it seems to me, a more definite and systematic course of civic training in the last year or two in the

I should like, first of all, to say that I wish to approach this whole subject from the standpoint of civic betterment. I sometimes feel that the men and women who are engaged in civic betterment and civic reform through various organizations in the community outside of the school have a feeling that the work in civics in the schools is something probably to be tolerated, that classes in civics in the schools are where the children should learn what these people outside are doing. If there is any such idea it is entirely wrong. My point is that any successful program of civic betterment must take into account systematic training for citizenship in the schools. In other words, the work of civic training in the schools must be a factor in the great problem of civic advancement. Civic progress, or social progress, if you please, is a process that is brought about by two factors. One of these we find in the environment; the other in the individual citizen himself. As those outside of the schools, in the civic and other organizations, are working practically upon environment, so those in the schools are working practically upon the individuals, and these two factors are bound to react, one upon the other. A recent author, speaking of the factors in the training for citizenship, mentions the heritage of civic ideals, civic customs and civic traditions. He

A Civic
Heritage

speaks of this heritage as one of the factors in the training of citizens. In other words, the child is bound to learn outside of the school as well as in. We must, if we expect to train the child for citizenship, look to the forces outside of the school as well as in the school. On the other hand, if we expect this heritage to be perpetuated, and to be developed and improved, we must look to the training of the citizen in the school, in order that he may come into the heritage and perpetuate it and work it out to a higher development.

We should have the closest co-operation between the civic bodies of the community and the schools themselves; and that is one of the things that we are emphasizing in Indianapolis. I believe that this is an experience that is worth referring to, the fact that in Indianapolis the Commercial Club particularly, as well as other commercial and civic

bodies is working hand in glove with the children from the schools, or with the school system, in the work of civic education. The children are being trained to co-operate with commercial bodies and to participate in the affairs of importance in the community life.

Now the cultivation of citizenship begins early for good, or for bad. It is a mistake to think that the cultivation for citizenship is necessarily a conscious process which we may or may not undertake. The cultivation of citizens is going on constantly not only in the school, but in the home and on the street. It begins very early. It is necessary, therefore, it seems to me to direct conscious effort to this process of the cultivation of citizens at a very early stage of life, and I think this is the chief function of the public school. Whether we institute a formal course in civics, or civil government, or not, the chief function of the public school is the training of youth for citizenship; and by citizenship I do not mean merely political citizenship, but that broader citizenship that will qualify our youth to become efficient members of the community.

Efficiency in community life is the true test of citizenship; and that efficiency while it is expressed, or may be expressed, in political life, may be expressed and is expressed much more generally and equally effectively in business life, in life on the street, in life in the neighborhood, in life in the home; and it is this broad efficiency in community life that we in the public schools should hold ourselves responsible for. Again, when we speak of the community, what do we mean? This term is elastic. We may mean the great national community; we may

What is Meant by Community

mean the local community; we may mean our immediate neighborhood. It is a broadly inclusive term. The point that I would emphasize here is, however, that there are greater local demands upon citizenship, than there are demands coming from the nation. When viewed from the standpoint of patriotism, as a matter of national patriotism, if the need arose there would be no lack of citizens who would be ready to lay down their lives for the welfare of the nation. But in our local affairs how many are willing to sacrifice themselves in the least for the advancement of the local community? We need to give greater attention to local citizenship and local patriotism at the present time and in our present stage of development, than we need to give to national citizenship or national patriotism; and this is peculiarly the work of the public school. The whole course of study, and the very life of the school, life in the playground, life in the corridors, life in the lunch-room, the entire life of the school, as well as the entire school curriculum, must contribute its part to the training for good citizenship. This means that there is necessary some more systematic development of the ideas and principles of citizenship. What shall this course be?

It goes without saying, of course, that good citizenship does not consist in a mere knowledge of constitutions, charters, and laws. Neither

can good citizenship be developed merely by training in constitutions, charters, and laws. Do not misunderstand me as saying that such a knowledge and training is not good. It has its place, but it is not the most essential thing in the training for citizenship, nor should we depend entirely upon this sort of training for the development of the right sort of citizenship. When dependence is placed solely upon this no wonder that it fails, no wonder that the result is disappointing.

Requirements of a Course in Civics

We want a course in civics that will do certain things, but I shall simply mention a few of the main points that occur to my mind. We need a course in civics in the schools beginning as early as we please, as early as the last year of the grammar school, and carried forward in the high school. I think we need a course in civics that will develop a consciousness in the mind of the child of the nature and meaning of community life; a course that will develop the consciousness of the individual citizen that he is a part of the community and not merely a self-centered individual; that will awaken his consciousness as a part of a great social organism, the consciousness of the relations of the individual to community life in all its phases; not merely political phases, but industrial and neighborhood relations, family relations, and all of the relations of community life.

We need a course that will develop a real live interest in community affairs, that will develop habits of thinking in terms of community life, so that it will become second nature to the individual to see every event that happens in his experience, not merely from his own individual stand. point, but in its relations to the life of the community as a whole.

We need a course that will develop civic conscience, and one that will develop habits of action. What we want in our citizenship, of course, is action. The measure of a man's citizenship is not what he knows, but what he does in connection with community life; that is the end of good citizenship, and that is also the end of education.

All education that is good will result in some form of expression which of course cannot take place without a certain amount of knowledge and information; yet information will fail to result in action unless there is back of it real vital interest.

As to methods, I will only mention two or three things. In the first place, I would say that our course in civics in the schools, whether in

Methods

the lower grades or the high school, must be a study not of books, but of the community. We must get away from the idea that we are studying books, and we must get into the idea that we are studying communities; and more than that, we are studying not communities in the abstract, not New York City or some other community that is far away, but we are studying the community in which the child lives. That is the object of study in any course of civics; and the text book must be merely a guide to and an

interpretation of the facts which the child is studying in his own actual life. Then we will have a real live subject that is full of interest.

Another point. We must study from the standpoint of the child himself. The interests of the child are the interests of the community. It is worth while for the child to find out that he has in himself the combined interests and activities of every institution of the community, whether it be large or small.

We must start out then with these interests and activities of the child himself. We must get away from the notion that we are training the child to be a citizen in the future. We must start out with the idea that the child is now a citizen. It is a mistake to think that the child is going to be a citizen, because he is a citizen now. He is a citizen, perhaps, with simple relations to the community life, and what we are doing is to take this individual with these simple relations to life and extend these relations throughout the community life as he proceeds. The very act of going to school is an act of good citizenship, although the child may not know it. Most children think they are in school for the purpose of training themselves to go out and get a job. That is not the idea at all. The public school system of this country is supported for the purpose of training citizens. It is an investment with the expectation of a return in the form of efficient service on the part of the child. Thus the child should learn at the very outset that he is going to school because the community expects that by doing that very thing he is learning to become a better citizen and qualifying himself to perform civic service. You may think I am leaving out what you always consider the main part of a course of civics, that is the idea of government; but such is not the fact. In a course in civics a child is to deal with governmental relations and with the machinery of government, the activities of government to a certain extent; but the thing I contend for is that we are to study these things in their proper perspective, that we hold them up not as an object to be studied separately from the child's life, but that we teach the machinery of government from the standpoint of the child himself. What the course ought to do is to start out with the child and show him that certain things will preserve his health and life, and that certain other things are going to do him harm; that we have need for sweeping the streets and for public cleanliness; that we have a government that is looking after the health of the child. Approach it in this way, and his interest is aroused in the subject.

One thing more on this point. In regard to the tests of effectiveness of our work in instruction in civics, I do not believe that the effectiveness of our civics work is the amount of information that the child acquires in regard to the constitution or mechanism of government, but it will evidence itself in the life of the child almost immediately. It will show in the life of the school. I took particular pains last spring to obtain testimony bearing on this and I found it universally to be the case

Tests of
Efficiency

throughout my experience and in the experience of the teachers throughout the school system of our city, that where this work had been done in the grades the life of the school had been transformed; in other words, the children of the school showed a greater sense of responsibility, and a greater degree of ability and interest in controlling themselves in their school relations. It, therefore, seems to me that we should have a practical test of the efficiency of the work in the effect that it has on the home, and in the attitude of the parents. We found plenty of evidence that the children discussed these subjects in their homes, and there was a reaction there. I could give you a number of interesting illustrations of this and of the actual results in the transformation of the home and in the attitude of parents toward the work. I am telling you the literal truth when I say that there is no subject taught in the Indianapolis schools that meets so thoroughly with the approval of the active business men of affairs as the course in civics. They are thoroughly interested and are backing it up with enthusiasm, because they think it is a necessary thing to train the boys and girls for citizenship.

Another test is to be found in the interest the children take in community affairs and their participation in matters of real community concern. I might give you a number of illustrations of this, for instance, how the children participated in the campaign for cleaning up the streets and sidewalks in Indianapolis a few years ago. They thus become a real force in the community.

I beg of you, ladies and gentlemen, who are actively engaged in civic development not to forget that the children of the schools are a real force in this great process of the transformation of our communities; and they should be used, not merely because they are a force in this work, but because the work reacts upon them, and educates and trains them for citizenship.

I shall not add anything in regard to high school civics, but merely say this, however, that whatever is done in the high school on the line of training in civil government and United States history, should continue the fixing of these habits that should have been started in the lower grades. [Applause.]

President Bonaparte next called upon Mr. Edward Joshua Ward, Supervisor of Social Centers under the Board of Education of Rochester, N. Y.

MR. WARD: If it had been prearranged that these two topics-the fighting of graft and the increase of the civic service of the public schoolshould be discussed together, a better situation could not have been planned for the introduction of the subject upon which I am asked briefly to speak, "The Use of the Public School Building as a Social Center and Civic Club House."