is maintained that social studies have direct responsibility in this field. Facts, conditions, theories, and activities that do not contribute rather directly to the appreciation of methods of human betterment have no claim. Under this test the old civics, almost exclusively a study of Government machinery, must give way to the new civics, a study of all manner of social efforts to improve mankind. It is not so important that the pupil know how the President is elected as that he shall understand the duties of the health officer in his community. The time formerly spent in the effort to understand the process of passing a law over the President's veto is now to be more profitably used in the observation of the vocational resources of the community. In line with this emphasis the committee recommends that social studies in the high school shall include such topics as the following: Community health, housing and homes, public recreation, good roads, community education, poverty and the care of the poor, crime and reform, family income, savings banks and life insurance, human rights versus property rights, impulsive action of mobs, the selfish conservatism of tradition, and public utilities.

Long as the foregoing list is, it is quite apparent that many more vital topics could be added. It is therefore important to understand that it is not the purpose to give the pupil an exhaustive knowledge of any one of these subjects, but rather to give him a clue to the significance of these matters to him and to his community, and to arouse in him a desire to know more about his environment. It is to help him to think "civically" and, if possible, to live "civically." Teacher and pupil must realize that they are studying living things. They must not be content with the printed page. Everything and everybody in the community must be drafted into the service of the boy and girl striving to become an effective part of the "body politic" and a constructive member of the social group. Companions in the schoolroom and on the playgrounds, workers in philanthropy and reform, Government officials and business leaders, voters and laborers of every class are all material for the classroom and laboratory in social studies.

History, too, must answer the test of good citizenship. The old chronicler who recorded the deeds of kings and warriors and neglected the labors of the common man is dead. The great palaces and cathedrals and pyramids are often but the empty shells of a parasitic growth on the working group. The elaborate descriptions of these old tombs are but sounding brass and tinkling cymbals compared to the record of the joy and sorrows, the hopes and disappointments of the masses, who are infinitely more important than any arrangement of wood and stone and iron. In this spirit recent history is more important than that of ancient times; the history of our

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own country than that of foreign lands; the record of our own institutions and activities than that of strangers; the labors and plans of the multitudes than the pleasures and dreams of the few.

In order that the aim described above shall be realized, the committee proposes to outline the five following units of social studies: (1) Community civics and survey of vocations.

(2) European history to 1600 or 1700 (including English and colonial American history).

(3) European history since 1600 or 1700 (including contemporary civilization).

(4) United States history since 1760 (including current events). (5) Economics and civic theory and practice.

COMMUNITY CIVICS.

The term "civics" is used here to include all the possible activities of the good citizen, whether as an individual or with private organizations or with government. Community civics is intended to acquaint pupils with the civic condition of their own community. Pupils visit in person and study at close range the vital elements of their city, village, or rural area. Personal visitation and first-hand information is a distinctive feature of the course. It insures the reality and simplicity necessary to a vital knowledge of social forces. It tends to dignify those forces and those places which the pupil usually despises because they are familiar. Finally, knowledge of the neighborhood will show the pupil how an effective education will make him a productive citizen.

It is the belief of the committee that such a course should be offered to the pupil as early as his powers of appreciation allow. The advantages of early acquaintance with the civic conditions are: First, that the larger number of pupils in the lower grades would be reached; and, second, that many pupils realizing the value of education would remain longer in school. In view of this conviction it is fortunate that several experiments have been successfully made in the elementary grades. The following account, taken from an article by Dr. J. Lynn Barnard, a member of this committee, describes the methods which he found successful in the elementary grades of his practice school:

In the practice school (fifth to eighth school years, inclusive) of the Philadelphia School of Pedagogy, the following tentative course in civics is gradually evolving, with evident interest to both pupil and teacher:

In the first half of the fifth year a beginning is made with the child's common experience within his home and his school. Gas is the first subject taken up informally and the children are encouraged to tell what they know about it and its uses. The teacher guides the conversation so that it naturally leads to the question of where we get our gas. The gas pipe is traced through the

house to the meter and then to the street. When it is learned that the gas is manufactured at a central plant the children are encouraged to visit it, with teacher or parent, and the result of the visit is a letter or report on what was seen. In like manner the subjects of electricity, water, sewage, and the tele phone are considered. After the service of the community to the child has been shown with each of the above, the reciprocal duties of the child to the community are brought out by careful questioning, which follows the lines of the pupils' own observation and experience.

In the second half of the fifth year what the child sees by looking out of the window, at home or at school, is drawn upon for material. For example, the policeman, the fireman, the postman, the street sweeper, the garbage collector, the ash collector are severally taken up in the manner already described, never omitting a possible trip and report or forgetting to emphasize the corresponding duties of citizenship resting upon the young citizens of the class.

During the early part of the sixth year some of the educational institutions of the city are visited, such as schools, playgrounds, parks, libraries, museums, historical buildings and localities. Later in the year visits are made to the various public institutions, such as city hall, bourse, customhouse, mint, armories and arsenals, hospitals, and juvenile court. No regular textbooks are used in the fifth and sixth years, but much supplementary material is introduced by the teacher to aid in the interpretation of what has been observed on the various trips. Among other suitable reading books, special mention ought to be made of Richmand and Wallach's Good Citizenship and Hill's Lessons for Junior Citizens. By the close of the sixth year the pupils have acquired a fund of first-hand civic information and experience of a concrete and practical nature, no attempt having been made to generalize or to discuss political rights or duties from a legal standpoint. In fact, the word "government" is not even used; only the more general term community."

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In the seventh year more attention may safely be given to the end and aim of governmental activity and the way in which public and private agencies unite to accomplish results. For the purpose no better introduction can be found for Philadelphia girls and boys than the beginnings and growth of community action in their home city. They will see how various civic functions, such as street paving and cleaning, and water supply, at first performed by each householder for himself, were gradually taken over by each municipality and performed for all alike. This concrete example of community growth leads naturally to a discussion of the meaning of "community" and "citizenship." The important truth is impressed upon the pupils that they are now citizens of various communities, namely, the home, the school, the playground, the church, the city, the State, the Nation. The family and the home as factors in this community life are particularly emphasized, that the children may rightly appreciate the civic importance of the home. Then follows the story of the making of American citizens out of a constant stream of foreign immigrants, both as to naturalization itself and as to the educative process that may fit the strangers into their new city environment. A series of studies is next undertaken to find out how the community aids the normal citizen in relation to life, health, property, working and business conditions, transportation and communication, education, recreation, religious worship. This is naturally followed by a brief study of how the community takes care of its subnormal citizens, usually referred to as the dependents, the defectives, and the delinquents. Emphasis is placed upon the idea of prevention, or of restoration wherever possible. Poverty, vice, and crime are coming to be recognized as social diseases. This is a fact which every boy and girl should be

made to feel. As each function is discussed, the organization of the city government to do this community work is outlined, with frequent reference to the Philadelphia charter and to ordinances of councils. Careful consideration is given to the cooperation of private agencies with various municipal bureaus and departments, that the pupils may see how community and citizen work together. How the city gets its money to do all it does is briefly explained.

By the time the eighth year is reached the pupil has become so thoroughly grounded in the governmental activities of the city that he is ready to be taken into the larger field of State and Nation. During the first term the work shapes itself as follows: First, how the community aids the normal citizen in his desire for health, security of person and property, business opportunity, education; and second, how the community provides for its unfortunates, by means of charitable and penal institutions. This includes some consideration

of the simpler forms of business law and practice, and also some of the commoner types of criminal offenses and the method of their repression and punishment. The governmental organization-legislative, executive, judicial— back of these activities is sketched in outline, both as to selection and control of State officials, not forgetting to discover where the money is found to keep the machinery going. During the second term of the eighth year the pupils learn, as fully as the time permits, how the Federal Government looks after the varied needs and interests of a hundred million citizens and subjects, at home and abroad.

While the study of municipal government is going on, the class is organized on the plan of the Philadelphia city government, so far as practicable, and then according to the commission plan and by an easy transition, when State and National Governments are reached the class takes on those organizations, respectively. This will be recognized as different from the well-known "school city" plan in that the class is organized for purposes of instruction and not for purposes of self-government.

For the seventh and eighth years, a helpful textbook has been found which admirably illustrates the newer civics, Dunn's The Community and the Citizen. It will be observed that throughout the last two years, when the more serious study of civics is being attempted, the order followed is invariably that of the child's own interest and appreciation, namely, from function to structure, from the executive department which does things to the legislative which plans the things to be done and the judicial which interprets and helps enforce those plans; and then, if necessary, to the charter or constitution which lays down the legal powers and duties of each branch of government.

Moreover, the possibilities for cooperation between the community, acting through government, and the citizens, young and old, acting singly or in voluntary associations, is never lost sight of. How great is this departure from the solemn farce of practically memorizing the Federal Constitution-now in vogue in the city of Penn and elsewhere-can best be appreciated by those teachers who are anxiously awaiting deliverance from bondage through longoverdue revision of their prescribed course of study.

While we are waiting for elementary schools to introduce a course such as Dr. Barnard has outlined, it is recommended that high schools undertake this work in a form adapted to their pupils. It is probable, however, that a brief review of community civics and further attention to a survey of vocations will be a valuable introduction to high-school education even though the pupils have had the elementary course in the grades.

The subject matter of community civics will vary with the community in which the school is located. Communities differ almost as much as individuals. There are the large cities, the villages, and the open country. They differ also as to the characteristics and occupations of the people. It is the hope of the committee to prepare outlines for each of the main types of communities, certainly for rural and urban. The topics given below are merely suggestive.

An explanation of the value of "community health" as one of the topics for this introductory course will make clear the various elements to be considered in selecting topics. The value of a topic for this course depends upon its intrinsic importance to the pupil as a citizen or potential citizen; upon the possibility of presenting it to the boy or girl mind; upon the attitude of the community toward the subject, such as sensitiveness to the discussion of unfavorable conditions; and upon its relation to other studies. There is probably no subject which so well meets all of these requirements as community health. Certainly there is no other topic of more immediate interest. to everyone. Health can be made so concrete that even a child can understand much about it. While the community may be sensitive about certain conditions, it is possible to present the facts so definitely as not to injure the teacher's influence. Community health and civic biology when taught in the same school seem to overlap, and yet with the cooperation of the teachers one course should help the other. Civic biology goes to the health department and observes the microscopic analysis of sputum and the multiplication of bacteria in milk. Community health considers the economic loss caused by deaths from impure milk. Civic biology explains what is meant by "death from preventable causes "; community health shows the scandalous carelessness of a social system that permits 650,000 deaths from preventable causes every year in the United States, and then points out civic remedies.

Each of the following topics has been selected with due reference to the foregoing requirements. The logical and complete presentation of civics must wait until a later period in the education of the pupil. In this earlier period the immediate needs of the pupil receive special consideration:

1. Community health.

2. Public recreation.

3. Public utilities, such as roads, street cars, water, gas, and electricity.

4. Family income.

5. Savings banks and life insurance.

6. Poverty, its prevention, and the care of the poor.

7. Crime and reform; juvenile courts.

8. Classification of population with reference to age, sex, occupation, and nationality.

9. Urban life.