Citizenship in school and out; the first six years of school life

Front matter

Class _JjiilfL3

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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT, w

Contents

Introduction ix

I. The Opportunity of the Elementary School in

a Democracy i

Introduction

For the plan and execution of the following chapters the reader is indebted to Miss Harris. All that is original in the plan and in the method of treatment is hers, and has grown directly out of her own successful experience and that of teachers under her direction or observation. It has been a privilege to cooperate in a slight degree in the elaboration of her plan and in making available to other teachers the results of her experience.

Citizenship In School and Out is timely. The outcome of the war has committed the world to the principles of democracy as it has never been committed before. America's part in this outcome has imposed upon her a mighty responsibility and an equally marvelous opportunity for service. Whether the principles for which we have fought shall be realized or discredited will depend upon our ability to make them live in practice; and our American schools will inevitably have much to do with determining how we shall meet our responsibility and opportunity, and whether the results of the war shall be permanent and beneficent as we have faith that they will be.

Perhaps the obligation of the schools is no greater at this time than at any other, but we feel it more keenly and more generally. For this very reason their opportunity is greater. Never before has there been so general an interest in civic education as at present. It is finding expression not only in the schools themselves and in the propaganda of educational and civic organizations, but also in express legislation enacted or proposed in several states. The subject received recogni-

xi xii Citizenship In School and Out

tion by the President in the midst of his preoccupation with international affairs of the greatest moment; indeed it was because of the gravity of the national and international situation that he urged upon the schools the necessity of training in civic consciousness and civic duty.

No one doubts the need for civic training in a democracy, nor the responsibility of the school in the matter. The question is, how shall the responsibility be met ? The following chapters afford an answer to this question, so far as the elementary schools are concerned, that should be welcome to teachers who are in quest of methods of procedure that will help them practically to fulfill their obligations as trainers of citizens. While it is, perhaps, not the only answer, it is one, at least, that is based on principles that must guide in any attempt at the civic training of young citizens that is to be at all efficacious — principles that have been too generally overlooked.

It has been prophesied that the work of the public schools will be profoundly modified by the war, and in some directions more than others; for example, in physical education. The war has made us vividly conscious that the schools have not done their full duty in developing a physically fit manhood and womanhood. No less, however, should be the effect upon the civic training afforded In fact, the increased attention to physical training has a distinctly civic motive. Efficient democracy is the thing aimed at whether we think of it in terms of physical fitness, industrial fitness, or moral, social, and political fitness. If the lessons of the war are really applied constructively to the modification of the work of the schools, education for citizenship and in citizenship will hereafter be "a more conspicuous aim," to use a phrase of Commissioner of Education Payson Smith, of Massachusetts. The initial premise upon which the following chapters are based is that "the one essential function of the American

Introduction xiii

public school" is "to educate citizens who will make democracy safe for the world."

A second conviction underlying this book is that civic education to be efficacious must begin with the child's entrance to school and must be continuous and persistent. The chief desideratum is to cultivate an habitual attitude of mind toward one's civic relations and responsibilities and toward the community's organization and practice by which alone these responsibilities can be fulfilled. Such habitual attitude of mind cannot be grafted on to the citizen after he has largely attained his growth, but must grow into the very texture of his being, must be an essential part of him. Speaking more precisely, the young citizen is developing an habitual attitude of mind toward his civic relations all the time, without guidance if not with it. It is not a thing that we can will him to do or not to do. If the process goes on without guidance during the six formative years of elementary school life, any attempt to shape civic habits in the later years becomes vastly more difficult. It becomes a process of re-making, and the longer it is postponed the more difficult it becomes The school has a large responsibility for getting the young citizen sta ted right in his civic growth, no matter how well-planned a course of civic instruction may be awaiting him in later years. The responsibility appears even greater when we think of the large percentage of young citizens who reach the age when they may legally leave school by the time they complete their elementary course, and do so; when we realize that " school terms are so short in many states and compulsory attendance is so badly enforced that the school life of the average person growing up in rural sections is only 4.5 school years of 140 days each."

The Committee on Social Studies of the National Education Association's Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education recognizes this need for an early bein xiv Citizenship In School and Out

ginning in civic education. Its report advocates a " cycle organization of civic studies (see Report on Social Studies i,* Secondary Education, Bulletin, 1916, No. 28, U. S. Bureau of Fiucation).

"The course of social studies proposed for the years VII-IX constitutes a cycle to be followed by a sirhilar cycle in the years X-XII, and presumably preceded by another similar cycle in the six elementary grades."

The reasons suggested for this cycle arrangement are three: (1) It gives opportunity for a well rounded, though elementary, course of civic or social training in the earlier grades for the very large number of young citizens who pursue their education no further; (2) it makes possible a type of training and instruction in each cycle adapted to the mental and social experience and needs of the pupils during well marked periods of growth; and (3) it provides for a foundation in the earlier cycles that is absolutely indispensable for effective work in the later cycles. " Assuming that provision has been made for the social aspect of education in grades I-VI of the elementary school, the following general plan ... is proposed for the years VII-XII." {Report on Social Studies, pp. n-12).

A good deal of progress has been made in recent years toward vitalizing civic education in the upper grades, especially in the junior high school period in the form of " community civics." But even the best of this work has lost in effectiveness because the assumption of the Committee on Social Studies that " provision has been made for the social aspect of education in the elementary school," has not been realized. Citizenship In School and Out makes a distinct contribution not only to elementary civic education as such, but also to the problem of the higher grades.

Courses of civic instruction or of civic training for the

Introduction xv

elementary grades have by no means been entirely lacking. Such courses, however, are as a rule one-sided or expressive of a single idea and in too many cases disregard recognized educational principles. A few years ago the author of >this Introduction in dij.ussing "the trend of civic education" l pointed out that the aims of civic education must be at least threefold: it must train citizens who axe intelligent with respect to civic matters; it must cultivate adequate and proper motives for civic conduct (including civic ideals) ; and it must cultivate the traits and habits that characterize the " good citizen." All of these aims must be constantly present in the mind of the teacher, and her procedure must be such as to realize them. Unfortunately this is not often the case.

Since it is largely the recognition of all these aims that gives significance to the plan and method of the following chapters, it may be well to consider them in some detail.

i . Civic Intelligence, — The controlling aim in most courses of civics has been civic intelligence. Moreover, civic intelligence has been conceived of as synonymous with civic knowledge. The result of this is that much of our civic instruction has been content with the impartation of information — supposedly true information, but almost always of narrow range and pertaining primarily to governmental mechanism. Knowledge about government is not the only knowledge that the intelligent citizen must have; but more important than this, no amount of knowledge will make an intelligent citizen unless he is able to use it, and unless he uses it with judgment, which includes the power and habit of deferring final judgments until all essential facts are in hand and interpreted in familiar terms.

It is one of the duties of citizenship to be informed about government and other civic matters; but it is not the duty

1 Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Education, 19 14, Vol. I, Chapter 18.

xvi Citizenship In School and Out

of young citizens to know as much about these things as adult citizens should know. The attempt to make children learn many of the things which adults have found useful is very often fruitless because children have not the basis of experience that alone can give meaning to the knowledge. They quickly " forget " because they never really knew. One fault with efforts to train for citizenship has been that of concentrating attention too exclusively upon the citizenship that children are to enjoy and exercise in the future to the neglect of the citizenship that they are enjoying and experiencing now. A result of this is that our methods have been those of rilling the mental storehouse for future use instead of those of cultivating a growing plant. The gardener is of course concerned with the crop he is to get at harvest time, but he knows that the best way and the only way to assure that crop is to provide the plant with nourishment that it can use in its present growth.1

This is the cardinal principle that permeates the report of the Committee on Social Studies and to which the Committee gives expression in the words of Professor Dewey:

"We are continually uneasy about the things we adults know and are afraid the child will never learn them unless they are drilled into him by instruction before he has any intellectual use for them. If we could really believe that attending to the needs of present growth would keep the child and teacher alike busy and would also provide the best possible guarantee of the learning needed in the future, transformation of educational ideals might soon be accomplished, and other desirable changes would largely take care of themselves."

This is also the cardinal principle that permeates the following chapters and to which the " suggestions for lessons' ' give an interpretation in practice that should be of the greatest service to teachers and to our democracy.

1 Instruction and Practice in the Duties of Citizenship, by Arthur W. Dunn, Bulletin No. i, 1918, Massachusetts State Board of Education.

Introduction xvii

In his story, "The Brown Mouse/' Mr. Herbert Quick admonishes us to " cease thinking so much about agricultural education, and devote ourselves to educational agriculture. So will the nation be made strong." This admonition contains an educational principle in harmony with that stated in the preceding paragraph, and peculiarly significant in its application to civic education. If Citizenship In School and Out seems to contain, or to suggest, a minimum of the kind of information that we adults have come to consider essential to intelligent citizenship, it is because the book aims throughout to make the child's present citizenship educational, in the belief that this is " the best possible guarantee of the learning needed in the future;" that education /pr citizenship is contingent upon education in citizenship. "In the effort to increase children's intelligence in social or civic matters the teacher is sometimes tempted to begin by giving information which has perhaps been carefully prepared to reach their understanding, but which does not touch their interest, because it seems to them remote, belongs in a world which concerns only grown-ups, hence is easily forgotten" (p. 1 1) . "In this exercise from day to day of all the f mictions of citizenship which are already theirs, occasion will often arise for them to acquire such information regarding government and other social arrangements as will be useful both then and in later life. . . " (p. 13).

It is only by the application of this principle, also, that the other essential factors in civic intelligence, so often neglected, can be cultivated — the ability to use knowledge, said judgment. Ability to use knowledge comes from practice in using it; and practice in using it can be had only in relation to situations actually experienced. Also, "to attempt to train the power of judgment by exercising it upon adult citizens' problems is a vain effort . . . The problem, then, which we select for the purpose of training the child's judgment must xviii Citizenship In School and Out

be each and every time a child's problem, all its factors and conditions familiarly known to him, and its solution of some real concern to him" (pp. n, 12).

2. Civic Motives and Ideals. — Reliance upon civic intelligence as a means to good citizenship is vain unless that intelligence is grounded in proper civic motives and ideals. Whatever limitations are imposed upon the cultivation of civic intelligence by the child's immaturity and lack of experience, the task of cultivating motives and of forming ideals is vastly more difficult and delicate. The importance of this aspect of civic education has not been overlooked, and many teachers do exercise, consciously or unconsciously, a potent influence in fixing high civic ideals and in stimulating right civic conduct in their pupils. But efforts to lay down rules, or to prescribe methods, for the guidance of others have almost always been wofully inadequate. Their inadequacy often results from advocating specific devices, perhaps good enough in themselves, instead of clarifying principles that must control in the use of all devices if they are to be at all effective. It is believed that the following chapters, while they can not make this phase of civic education easy, will make it less formidable to the earnest teacher by the emphasis they give to such a controlling principle, and by the concrete illustration of the application of the principle in the several grades. The most important principle emphasized in this connection is the same as that already noticed in discussing the training of civic intelligence:

"Must we not, when we are trying to show the children ideals, stand with them on the plane of their own experience . . . ? We are brought always to the same conclusion: whatever characteristic of the grown citizen we are trying to foster in the growing citizen, we find that the reasonable procedure is to use for our purpose the circumstances in which the child is naturally placed and the material which his own interest indicates is appropriate to his growth at that particular stage in his experience." (See p. 13.)

Introduction xix

3. Civic Traits and Habits. — The third aim of civic education is the cultivation of civic traits and habits (see above, p. xv). It is not too much to say that in the elementary grades, and especially in the primary grades, this should be the principal aim. Not a great deal should be expected of children in these grades by way of realization of civic intelligence or of appreciation of civic ideals, But civic traits and habits not only can be well started in these years, they must be started then both to meet present needs and to provide safely for the future.

The truth is now generally recognized that we " learn to do only by doing ;" that habits are formed only by practice. Any plan of civic education that includes this aim of cultivating civic habits and traits must, therefore, make use of the young citizen's activities. This is no new idea; but it is an idea to which, again, must be applied the principles to which we have already given so much attention; There is need for the caution urged in the following pages (pp. 3, 4, 9-10) — to find out, first, "what civic relationships and activities do . . . concern the children and engage their thoughts and feelings in the present years of their lives and in the place which they normally. fill as child citizens of the community."

An instance was reported in the newspapers before the United States entered the world war, of a monster petition signed by thousands of school children in one of our large cities, to be presented by a committee (according to the newspaper report) directly to the diplomatic representatives in our country of the belligerent powers in the interest of peace. To say nothing of the wrong lesson in international procedure, such an incident (if it really occurred) is a striking example of the exploitation of children by interested adults in matters about which children could have no judgment and no immediate concern. "We cannot be certain of the perxx Citizenship In School and Out

sistence of habits formed in any matters in which the children have not a natural, live, personal interest. Habits formed by indifferent compliance with outside authority or suggestion are not always permanently useful habits'' (see pp. 10, n).

It may not be out of place, in this connection, to refer to the various forms of " pupil self-government" which imitate the forms of city, state, or national government, — a topic which may strike some as conspicuous, in the following pages, by the absence of explicit treatment. The authors of this book believe in pupil participation in many activities relating to the management of the school, evidence of which is abundant in the following chapters. They also believe in the dramatization of governmental activities, as they believe in the dramatization of other activities, as a means of instruction at times when governmental activities are a proper subject of instruction. But it is well to remember that the instructional value of such dramatics, or imitation, is a thing wholly distinct from the educational value of real participation in the activities connected with the management of the school, which may exist without the dramatization.

"Real civic training requires practice in meeting real present problems by appropriate means. Neither the problem nor the means should be artificial. We cannot get away from the fact that the school community is not a state nor a city community; that its problems are of their own kind; that the means of dealing with its problems must be adapted to their own ends. What is needed most is to inject democratic principles and methods into the realities of school life, rather than to make the school appear something that it is not.

"This point of view does not overlook the instructional value of following the forms and procedure of city or state governments. In regard to this it may be said: (i) Occasional dramatization of governmental procedure has a certain value, but this value is apart from the principle of self-government. (2) The actual knowledge that boys and girls acquire regarding the forms and procedure of government through the establishment of an imitation in the school is extremely superficial,

Introduction xxi

inadequate and erroneous. It can only be the roughest approximation to the reality. (3) By the time young citizens reach the high school, and indeed the grammar grades, their knowledge of government may be acquired much more effectively and directly by other means, — by observation, by reading, and by participation in the activities of the larger communities of which they are also members just as truly as they are members of the school. Hence, the value of community civics which affords to pupils the opportunity to organize both their knowledge and their activities in relation to their larger community life, and in such a way as to deal with realities."1

The course outlined in the following chapters makes the children's activities, "in school and out/' its point of departure and its principal medium for civic training. The reason for this is partly because only so may civic traits be instilled and civic habits fixed. But more than this, these activities afford the basis of experience by means of which civic knowledge and civic ideals may be interpreted.

"The first step is to find out what civic relationships and activities do, as a matter of fact, concern the children and engage their thoughts and feelings in the present years of their lives . . . ; the next step is to give recognition in the school life to the most useful among these relationships and activities, and to supplement them in the school-room and on the playground until they become well-rounded social experiences productive of desirable social habits; and the final step is to interpret these experiences in lessons based upon them so as to add to the children's intelligence in civic matters and supply incentives toward good citizenship." (Page 4).

It is believed, therefore, that teachers will find profitable the discussion of " centers of interest" in Chapter III and the illustration of their use which occurs in the succeeding chapters.

Another significant feature of the plan of Citizenship In School and Out is the recognition in each grade of the "five

1 Instruction and Practice in the Duties of Citizenship, by Arthur W. Dunn, Bulletin, 1918, No. 1, Massachusetts State Board of Education.

xxii Citizenship In School and Out

fields of citizenship" (pp. 4-8) — the home, work, recreation, social intercourse, and organized community life. It is not the recognition of these five " fields" that is original — they or similar fields have been recognized before — but the plan of organization by which all of them are distinctly recognized in each and every grade.

It has become quite common in courses of civic instruction in the elementary grades to recognize, more or less clearly, some such fields of citizenship in sequence — the "home" being the center of attention in the first grade, the " school" in the second grade, the " neighborhood," perhaps, in the third, " industry" (the "field of work") in a later grade, and so finally leading up to a more comprehensive study of "the community" in the grammar grades or first year of the high school, when "local," "state," and "national" governments are taken up also in sequence. The significance of the plan followed in the present book lies in the fact that in the actual experience of the growing citizen these "fields" of citizenship are not in sequence, but concurrent, and together make up the sum of his social experience at any given time. The very fact that they "are not as distinctly differentiated in his [the child's] case as in that of the adult citizen" makes it necessary to recognize all fields from the very beginning. Though they become more clearly differentiated as the citizen grows to maturity, and though interest centers in one more than in another at different times, they are all present at all times. The home never ceases to be an important field of citizenship, and the young citizen of school age always has some interest, however slight, in the "field of work" or in that of "organized community life."

If the young citizen's civic education "is to be well rounded, each and every one of these fields must receive the teacher's attention, at one time or another, and in due proportion" in

Introduction xxiii

every grade. By this means the growing citizen is carried through a lesser "cycle" of social education each year, instead of merely through a segment, as well as through the larger cycles recommended by the Committee on Social Studies. Each year's experience in every "field" thus becomes working capital for definite use in succeeding years. Comment may be made, finally, upon the conviction underlying the course of study here outlined, that civic education in the elementary grades, to be effective, must not only be continuous throughout these years, but must also look for its opportunity and its materials in connection with every subject and every activity of the school. There are those who fear, as is pointed out in a later page, that civic instruction that is "incidental" to instruction in other "subjects" will tend to become wholly "accidental," and who, therefore, insist upon a definite period of the day for such instruction. If such a period is available, well and good, but by itself it is wholly inadequate. The course here outlined deliberately organizes the work in relation to the other "subjects" of the curriculum, not as a makeshift for lack of an available "period" for independent civic instruction, but because of the belief that the training of the young citizen for and in the duties of citizenship should be neither an "accident" nor an "incident," but the one controlling aim of public education.

Arthur William Dunn

CITIZENSHIP

IN SCHOOL AND OUT

CHAPTER I The Opportunity of the Elementary School in a Democracy

In the fierce light which a world-wide war has shed upon all social institutions, certain features half hidden before in the shadow of custom are now plainly discernible, and shapes before but vaguely seen through the mists of speculation are at last revealed in bold and clear cut outline. Among the institutions whose purposes and work are being thus seen anew the public school looms large.

Before the war we, the American public, had often pointed out differences between those whom we proudly called typical American citizens and the typical subjects of a European autocracy, but we had not fully realized the significance of these differences. It had not yet been brought home to us that the power of independent thinking, the sense of civic responsibility, and all the rest that we choose to call distinctively American traits, are not only the product of democratic institutions but are also the hope for the continuance of these institutions; nor had we keenly sensed the dangers attendant on the fact that this type of citizenship is far from being universal among us. Now, taught by the marked contrasts which war has shown us, we have learned that there are certain traits, habits, and ideals, differing widely from the requisites for contented citizenship in an autocracy, which belong by eternal necessity with useful citizenship in a democracy; moreover, that these must become the possession of the mass of our citizens if our republic is to live.

Before the war we had begun to think of schools as agencies not only for building the characters of individuals, but also for modifying the characteristics of society itself, but we had not dreamed how far reaching this modification might be. Now, better informed by the exhibition which Prussia has made of her schools and their product, we are convinced that a carefully planned and efficiently operated system of education can go very far indeed toward producing exactly the kind of citizenship which is desired by those who shape the policy of a State.

Before the war we were coming to believe that to educate children in good citizenship was one of the important functions of the school, but we were still " careful and troubled about many things," and it often seemed impossible to make room in a crowded curriculum for this one thing more. Now, inspired by the greatness of the opportunity which the outcome of the war has brought us, we see clearly that to educate citizens who will make democracy safe for the world is the one essential function of the American public school.

We may expect the next decade to bring about a radical modification of our educational system with the distinct purpose of meeting this public demand for training in citizenship. This demand, so much more sharply accentuated now than ever before, is, of course, no new demand created by the war. For longer than the past decade many teachers and other school officials throughout the country have heard clearly this demand, have recognized fully its justice, and have devoted their chief efforts to meeting it and to satis-

The Opportunity of the Elementary School 3

fying their own ideal of the education most useful to the citizens of a democracy. These efforts furnish us with a considerable body of experiments very valuable for study, and such study may well bring rapid advance from now on.

In the progress already made there may be plainly seen the tendency to broaden the definition of the term citizenship far beyond its meaning to the last generation of teachers. The mastering of a text book in " Civil Government" is no longer considered sufficient education in citizenship; for citizenship is seen to cover much more than a knowledge of the machinery of government and its operation. That citizenship means also actual participation in community affairs is conceded, and in many schools instruction in civil government is supplemented by much attention to the public activities of the local community. It is sought to interest the children in all the good movements which are engaging the attention of the grown citizens of that locality. Children's crusades against ill-kept markets, juvenile organizations for assisting the street cleaning department, even junior police squads, are instituted to secure this participation. Unquestionably this method of teaching civics is a step in advance, not only because it broadens the definition of citizenship, but also because it recognizes the truth that children are chiefly interested in things which they can do and that they can "learn to do only by doing. " Experiments in this direction have, however, not infrequently failed to realize the hopes with which they were undertaken. There are doubtless some public causes more likely to be retarded than promoted by the efforts of children, and some in which their interest can be only the result of artificial stimulus and therefore must soon flag or turn to disappointment and distaste.