The teaching of citizenship

Contents

I The Need and the Method

II The Lesson of Instinct

^III The Lesson of Breadth

Preface

A BOOK must be judged by its purpose and Preface by the way in which it meets that purpose. The first test may be stated quite distinctly by the author ; the second test must be applied by the reader. In order that this volume may not be judged by ends which it does not seek to reach, it may be well to state the intent. The "~ purpose is to suggest certain natural and human starting points for the teaching of patriotism Purpose and citizenship. It is not claimed that the book is an exhaustive treatise, even of its simple kind. It suggests directions rather than goals. It does not offer a storehouse of information, nor does it seek to fill minds with lists and classifications. It rather aims to guide an instinct and promote a sentiment.

From this it is plain that the material cannot History and be merely historical. Perhaps no study has ^ "^^^ ^ been more closely related to citizenship than has history. As a review of feelings and prin- [yii]

preface

Geography

and

citizenship ciples, and of the adventures that grow out of their conflicts, history offers much upon which sentiment can feed. But we need a spirit that can study the Revolution from an English standpoint or the Civil War from a Southern standpoint and still keep a steady loyalty. A man is not forced to believe in the righteousness of the War with Mexico ere he can believe in the mission of the United States. Indeed, it may be said that we should cultivate a spirit that can see the blunders of our past without changing to a prejudice that justifies wrong, or to a disloyalty that construes an event into a history. The most of our nation's story is cause for pride; but we should rear citizens who can read the few discreditable chapters and still keep both justice and love. This is a problem of the spirit.

Nor does this book seek to relate geography to citizenship. In the opinion of Professor Jenks geography is as closely connected with the arousing of the social consciousness and the teaching of citizenship as is any other study.* It is apparent that the Mississippi basin has

^ Citizenship and the Schools, Jenks, p. 62. [viii]

been a vast factor in national life ; that the Preface building of the Erie Canal was an epoch in the development of the country ; that the lakes and oceans, the Gulf, and especially the Gulf Stream, have served other purposes than those of rhetoric ; and that our mountains and prairies have opened up deposits and yielded harvests that figured more deeply than in annual statistics. It is true, also, that extent of territory has sometimes been mentioned in Fourth of July orations ; and that, other things equal, bigness may be deemed a national asset. The vastness of the agricultural and mineral resources of the country may prophesy not only commercial supremacy, but even great possibilities in education and philanthropy. Therefore, ^— r the real problem is the making of hearts ample enough to hold so vast a country ; the culturing of minds keen enough to see its tremendous issues ; and the training of hands skilful enough to bid our territory cease the travail that must continue as long as the creation waits for the revealing of the sons of God. This, also, is a problem of spirit.

Having this main purpose, this volume is not [ix]

Preface a new text-book on civics. Such text-books are many and excellent, and they have their mission. While the large features of our governmental life abide from decade to decade, detailed changes must constantly occur. Thus the tendency is toward more complex machinery of state. It is surely good that young people should know the outlines of the system. For this reason books like Professor Hart's " Actual Government under American Conditions," giving information concerning the various branches of government, their limits.

Civics and interactions, and tenures, must be welcome. Unquestionably we have done well to place the study of civics in the High School curriculum. Still it is doubtful whether that study, as such, can have much effect in producing 1^ /good citizens. The traitor is quite as anxious / to know the terms and salaries of the different y public offices as is the patriot. Grafters usually have accurate knowledge of the way in which

?the governmental machine runs. The knowledge is good ; but the disposition of the knower is, after all, the central thing. The living creature of honesty must be put within the wheels.

So only will the scholar turn from tables and Preface descriptions with the heart of a patriot. Htere again we have a problem of the spirit. ^

What has thus far been written deals either The teacher with the study on the one side, or with the of citizenship scholar on the other. Between these two the teacher stands as a living mediator. It may be that he does not teach any of the subjects named, and that it is difficult to connect his department logically with the life of the state. The laws of physics are not national ; and chemistry does not change when it crosses the seas. In botany a discussion of the flora and fauna of America does not always inspire the singing of the national hymn.v An argument for a nation's preeminence is not always fortified by an appeal to biology. Latin and Greek glorify ancient civilizations that flourished on another continent, while German and French are the languages of rival nations. The English language is not ours alone ; we share it with those who are as apt to accuse us of a nasal twang in its use, as we are to accuse them of a throaty friction ! All subjects in a school's curriculum have a relation to citizenship ; yet [xi]

Preface the relation may be so indefinite that any attempt to suggest it may seem forced. The teacher will believe heartily that an effective citizenship is impossible apart from intelligence ; but he will believe, as well, that intelligence must be joined by some warm and dynamic quality ere it can become enthusiastic and devoted. The chief defect of anarchism has not been on the intellectual side. Here once more we have a problem of the spirit.

Special As if in acknowledgment that it is difficult

BCllOOl

exercises ^^ relate all departments to the teaching of citizenship, the endeavor is often made to meet the deficiency by the holding of general exercises. The usual staple of such exercises is patriotic music, with an occasional address preceding the national holidays. The appeal is to sentiment, and the hour does not lack fervor. " The Star Spangled Banner " waves again ; the tents are reerected on the " Old Camp Ground " ; John Brown's soul renews the endless march. It is all good. The man of ice may object on the score of the irrationality of the performance. We may promptly and justly ask him whether it is reasonable to rule out so [xii]

large and important a section of human nature Preface as the sensibilities. But we should likewise hear his protest that a patriotism should not be educated by emotions alone — especially when the emotions are given no chance for a healthful expression and reaction. The body does not grow strong merely by vigorous stimulants, nor the mind by riotous debates, nor the will through jerky impulses. The processes of edu- 1 , , cation should be steadied by a genuine purpose, f In man, at least, an instinct joins reason at some point of life. The native feeling should be guided by information. It is hard to tell which is the more deplorable — the waste that results from knowledge without zeal or the breakage that results from zeal without knowledge. The young should not be trained into either type of one-sidedness. State-pride should lead toward state-craft, and state-craft should issue into state-pride.

It is thus evident that the education for Teachers citizenship should not be left to occasional the state outbursts of feeling. The teachers are the servants of the state. Their relation to the mental life of their scholars is most definite, [xiii]

Preface From this couplet of statements the inference may be easily drawn that these servants of the state should prepare their charges by certain mental, as well as by emotional exercises, to catch the thrill, to appreciate the privilege, and to take up the duty of good citizenship. Every teacher of youth should feel this obligation — no matter what his department of instruction may be. The teacher of zoology must be a teacher of citizenship, also ; and he will not look far ere he sees that the laboratory method may be used for both studies. Amid all the debates that have waged concerning the relation of the schools to religion, their relation to citizenship has not stood in doubt. There is all but unanimous agreement that a chief function of our public school system is to prepare the children who come to the land through the gates of birth or of immigration for a righteous and efficient attitude toward the state. Any treatise must do good which shows in any small degree how every faithful teacher may aid in the making of a proper civic atmosphere — and this, too, in spite of the fact that he may not teach history, geography, English, [ xiv ], civics, or political science. Likewise some Preface small work must be done by that treatise which tends to save citizenship from the reactions of a passing emotionalism and supports it by some rational considerations. The following pages," therefore, will seek to suggest some items of instruction which may be used by all teachers and which may be so fastened to the mind of the pupil as to give him the steady mood of a good citizen.

[XV]

Chapter I The Need And The Method

It 18 in her public schools and universities that the youth of England are, by a discipline which shallow judgments have sometimes attempted to undervalue, prepared for the duties of public life. There are rare and splendid exceptions, to be sure, but in my conscience I believe that England would not be what she is ivithout her system of public education, and that no other country can become what England is, without the advantages of such a system, — George Canning.

Ci]

THE NEED AND THE METHOD

We frequently hear men say that in our The Need time the national spirit is losing its intensity. ^^^ The more extreme are ready to say that patriot- ^^^ Method ism is becoming one of the lost virtues. We do not pay serious heed to such wailings when they come from one who construes some narrow reform into the allness of civic duty and regards those who do not join in his particular crusade as negatively traitorous. Nor are we much moved when the complaint comes from a perfervid orator who would define patriotism Alleged as an alliance with his political set. Nor yet patriotism again are we ready to accept the statement that several of our large cities are governed in a clumsy, not to say dishonest way, as evidence that the whole country is on its way to destruction. There have been men in every age who declared that humanity was just ready to go over the precipice ; but somehow humanity has always declined to fulfil those doleful [3]

Professor

Boyce's

questioii

The Need prophecies. A blind optimism is no more ^^^ blameworthy than a blind pessimism. The

the Method ^^^^^ usually lies somewhere between the two extreme forms of estimate.

Yet we are in duty bound to give heed to some sober and reliable voices that speak of patriotism as having lost some of its former warmth. Professor Royce in his book, " The Philosophy of Loyalty,'* discusses the question without wildness. He speaks of the fact that the Japanese regard their country as a part of their religion. That religion includes a reverence for the past and a devotion to the memory of the dead who have wrought well for the nation's life. He then raises the inquiry as to whether the Americans regard their country in any such a religious way. He writes : " The country is to us an unquestionable political authority. Were it in danger, we should rally to its defense. We have a good many formal phrases of reverence for its history and for its dignity — phrases which had a much more concrete meaning for our predecessors, when the country was smaller, or when the country was in greater danger from its foes. But, at present, is not our national loyalty somewhat in the back- The Need ground of our practical consciousness ? Are ^^^ we really at present a patriotic people ? "^ Di- ^^^ Method rectly Professor Royce makes the matter personal and asks : " When can the ordinary American citizen say in time of peace that he performs notable acts of devotion to his country ? ... In other words, how often, in your own present life, or in the lives of your fellow citizens, as you now know them, is it the case that you do something critical, significant, involving personal risk or sacrifice to yourself, and something which is meanwhile so inspired by your love of your nation as a whole that you can say that you have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak, save as the country itself, in your opinion, requires you to see and speak ? " ^ The " eyes to see and tongue to speak " in this last sentence refers to the loyal reply given by the Speaker of the House of Commons in England, when in 1642 King Charles came in person to oversee the arrest of certain members of the House.

Other quotations could be given from men

^ The Philosophy of Loyalty, Royce, pp. 236-7.

The Need who are careful observers of the moods of this and era. It may be that we find it as difficult to

the Method ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ patriotism that expresses itself in the quieter pursuits of peace as the people who really have that patriotism find in catching themselves " in the very act " of patriotism. The righteous in the day of judgment are represented as being unable to tell when they had done certain good things ! But, even after we allow for all of the hidden loyalties of our day, we must still question whether the words quoted above do not hint at a truth. At any rate just now our people as a whole do not seem to be inspired by a great passion of moral sacrifice for the nation. There are places in the country where such a passion apparently exists and even reigns for a time ; but it seems to be fragmentary and temporary. It may be that the American citizen is in this respect no more listless than the citizen in other lands where no great struggle has recently aroused the national consciousness ; but the real patriot is not satisfied by excusing himself by the reference to the indifference of others. There are some reasons that explain any present lack of [6]

Estimate of present patriotism patriotic ardor. We may do well to consider The Need these. ^^^

The American problem of assimilation has ^^^ Method been a large one. For many years the tides of new life have flowed in liberal streams through our ports from other lands. The figures of immigration are often retailed, and they are startling. It seems nothing less than a miracle that we have been able to assimilate so many whose previous life has been wholly different from our own. We must all be gratified to note what a national spirit frequently takes hold of the second generation of our immi- immigration grants. This has been eminently true of the citizenship most of those who have come from northern Europe. But the last fifteen years have seen an enormous change in the character of immigration. Without designating any particular sections from which these people are now coming, it may be said confidently that they are very far removed in thought and spirit from our American life. Consequently our problem of absorption is larger than of old. One feels this distinctly as one passes through certain quarters of our cities in which these newcomers [7]

The Need are massed. Often, too, their introduction to and our country is not such as to awaken love at

the Method ^^^^ gj^j^^.^ ^ gentleman saw a train-load of immigrants alighting from the cars in a station in one of our great cities. Brothel's were there to meet brothers ; sisters to meet sisters ; fathers to meet wives and children. Men and women were standing at the guarded gates peering eagerly forward for the sight of familiar faces. The whole scene was a pathetic one, and those who had the domestic sense could not but feel the pathos. Policemen were stationed at the gates to keep the waiters in line. Every moment or two some poor fellow would see a loved one coming and would rush forward for the greeting — only to be clubbed back by the American keeper of order ! The gentleman watching the brutal treatment accorded to the new arrivals said directly : '' This is a place where they make anarchists every minute.'* This is an extreme illustration, let us admit ; but it gives a glimpse of some impressions that must be made upon immigrants when they first come to our land. Such impressions only make the work of assimilation more difficult. [8]

More than any other class of public servants, The Need the school teachers deal with this problem at ^^^ first hand. They may not go to the homes of ^^^ Method the immigrants ; but important portions of the homes eome to them. Every few days a shy representative of foreign life stands in the doorway. The teachers are to guide him into the American spirit. If he is not brought to a knowledge of our national institutions and ideals by the public school, he is not likely to arrive at that knowledge under any other guidance. Indeed, it may be said that the schools have done the greatest work of fusing alien immigration peoples into a national life that the world has ^^ teacher ever seen ; and this work has been done in a marvelously short time. It lies not within the scope of this work to pronounce for or against immigration ; but it certainl}^ is in point, not only to pay a just tribute to the service rendered by our teachers in gathering the children of the immigrants into an intelligent sympathy with American life, but also to emphasize anew the responsibility that comes to our public schools in this important respect. When we look at the astounding figures of our immigra- [9]

The Need tion, and when we consider that these countand less throngs of people arrived with but the

e method (jijjjuiest ideas of our republican life, and when we take into account the fact that they help to make the national feeling as it now exists, we cannot but marvel that the national consciousness is as strong as it is. The credit belongs largely to the teachers of the land. Professor Barrett Wendell in his " Liberty, Union and Democracy," the Lowell Institute lectures delivered in 1905, comments at length on the reassuring fact that the young men who come to college with noticeably foreign names are often "Yankees like their native Yankee teacher." Their physical ancestry is abroad; their political ancestry is here. " The power of assimilation inherent from the beginning in the national character of America proves still unbroken. So long as it stays so, we who love our country may be careless of the physical fact. It is not the mortal body of our race, it is the deathless spirit for which we passionately desire a noble endurance." ^ Professor Wendell does not discuss the agencies of that assimila-

"^ Liberty, Union and Democracy, Wendell, p. 11.

tion ; but we are certain that he would give The Need

immense tribute for the service rendered by ^^<*

the profession of which he himself is a distin- ^^^ Method

guished member. When the foreign child

enters the schoolroom the teacher may well

say : " I am charged with the task of making

another American ! "

The bearing of our wonderful commercial Commerce life upon the national consciousness is likewise citizenship apparent. Years ago J. G. Holland, in his " Gold Foil," wrote a sentence that sounds like an accusation of to-day : " I suppose that Paris, as the representative of France, furnishes an instance of the aristocracy of talent and culture ; that London represents England in the / aristocracy of blood, and that New York represents America in the aristocracy of wealth." ^ HoUand This basis of " social classification " is not altogether just, and all sorts of modifications might well be suggested. Still the general charge that Americans are a commercial people reappears with persistence. It is found in John Graham Brooks' interesting book, "As Others See Us," a book that gives us the vary-

1 Gold Foil, HoUand, p. 191.

The Need ing estimates held by other peoples concerning and Americans. Frequently we hear the charge

the Method presented by loyal citizens of the Republic. If our first impulse is to arise in patriotic indignation and deny the accusation, our second thought leads us to seek explanations or even to offer justification for the preeminence of commerce in our national life. Evidently the men who came to this country in the beginnings had to assert their dominion over the land, and their successors still have the same assertion to make. The territory was wide, and much of it resisted stubbornly all efforts to tame it to uses. We crossed one range of mountains only to find another stretching a towering obstacle the full length of the country. Nature had to be subdued ere civilization could come to its own. In less than a century and a half we have laid the vast portion of the continent under tribute to our toil. This has required mind and muscle and money. Only a dreamer would suggest that it would all be accomplished without laying much stress upon the material side of life. From this standpoint it seems quite creditable to the nation that its [12]

intellectual and spiritual ideals have been as The Need strongly maintained as our history shows. ^^^

None the less we should not blind ourselves ^^^ ^^^^d to the real fact that the very immensity of our commercial chances is an unceasing temptation.

" 111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, When wealth accumulates and men decay."

We have known cases where wealth grew and

the man shriveled. Multiply such cases and,

of course, the moral conscience of the nation

suffers. It should be remembered, also, that

our great struggles have been caused primarily Commerciai- , mi T^ 1 J ism and war

by an issue of commerce. Ihe rrencn and

Indian War came out of the question as to who

should have the right to gather the furs in the

region of the upper Ohio. The War of 1776

grew out of various taxes, culminating in the

tax on tea. The War of 1812 was provoked

by the blockade of our commerce on the coast

of France. The War with Mexico was not

without a motive of territorial extension, while

the whole situation was aggravated by the fact

that certain citizens in Mexico owed debts to

men in our own Republic. The Civil War

The Need

and

the Method

Commercialism and commerce really had its root in the supposed commercial value of slave labor to one section of our country. It is true that in all these events we broadened and deepened the issues, and that, in greater or less degree, the contests appealed to the moral consciousness of our people ; but the first issue in each case was commercial. Even now it is true that the stable issues in our political life are commercial. One has but to run one's mind over the list to see how true this statement is. Even certain personal vices' tend to institutionalize themselves in commercial ways. If we think of gambling, intemperance, and impurity, we shall understand how they are made matters of traffic. By the time we have filled out our list of facts bearing on this charge of commercialism we have a forbidding condition indeed.

But there are some offsets. The fact mentioned above that a new and big country was under necessity of laying stress on commercial life should be kept in mind. There is a just distinction between commerce and commercialism. We can all feel this distinction, though we may not be able to give its definition. An [14]

examination of the history of other countries The Need

would show that, since the passing of knight- ^^^

hood, when war was a profession for personal Mettioa

adventure and glory, the great contests have

grown largely out of some commercial problem

or territorial aggression. When we think of

the wars of the European countries in the last

one hundred and fifty years and compare them

with our own in the point of the moral passion

they evoked and the deep questions they settled,

our own contests will not suffer by the test.

International questions are almost certain to

relate to commerce or territory, and national

problems are almost as certain to grow out of

the same soils.

There is, however, a test that can be applied Admiration to our people — a test which shows the more mercialism deliberate standard of our national life. A country may be judged by its admirations as well as by its achievements. America has never yet had a commercial hero. Washington was rich, for his day ; but the most of our children have never heard of his wealth. We have glorified certain men of wealth who turned their gold into coin for the higher commerce [15]

The Need and became philanthropists. But the name of «w^ a merely rich man has not yet been placed in

the Method Q^j. H^ii ^^ ^dimQ. The merely rich man of Washington's day is forgotten. If Robert Morris and Peter Faneuil had been only rich men their names would long since have been lost. The sober and historical estimates of the American ■ . ^'^ . < people do not justify the charge that our stand- / ards of judging success are primarily commer- ( cial. The names that draw the applause of public audiences, whether the names be of the past or of the present, are not the names of men noted simply for wealth. The American people give long honor to men who are primarily philanthropists, and brief honor to men who are primarily millionaires. As long as the heroes of our nation are not money-makers, it cannot be truthfully said that our citizens have been hopelessly debauched by commercialism. Commercial- It is evident that the teacher has an important relation to this problem of our people. Being himself a member of a profession that promises small hope of wealth, he is a living illustration of a non- commercial ambition. He can so choose his examples of success as to [16]

ism and the teacher give to commerce its proportionate place — and The Need nothing more than that. He can glorify the ^^^ philanthropy which is the crowning possibility ^^^ Method of wealth, and he can bring the names of real benefactors before his pupils. He can avoid any jealous tirade against wealth as such, and so keep the young from a reaction which ever follows extreme teaching. Above all, he can distinctly show that the admirations of the American people have not been, and are not now, for men whose only claim to renown has been the heaping up of huge fortunes. The influence of the teacher in saving our new generation from the vices of commercialism is second only to that of the home, and equal to that of the faithful clergyman.

We find an interesting illustration of the in- Seneca fluence of a teacher upon the life of Seneca, the Roman moralist. He was much impressed by the Stoic Attalus. He writes : " When he began to set forth the praises of poverty, and to show how heavy and superfluous was the burden of all that exceeded the ordinary wants of life, I often longed to leave the school a poor man.'*^

^ Seekers After God, Farrar, pp. 30-31.

The Need He mentions other points of instruction that «^^ came to him from Attains — how he led

the Method j^j^^ ^^ renounce all relishes that whet appetite rather than satisfy hunger, to abstain from the use of perfumes, and to sleep only upon a hard couch. All his life long, Seneca testifies, he had followed these advices from his teacher. He puts this sentence into his letter to his friend Lucilius : " I have told you these anecdotes to prove to you what eager impulses our little scholars would have to all that is good, if anyone were to exhort and urge them on." It is true that Seneca became immensely wealthy, and there are some evidences that his relations to the state through Nero led to various compromises ; but is it not certain that he never fully left the teaching of Attalus ? When Boosevelt Theodore Roosevelt was coming into prominence as Police Commissioner of New York, he was interviewed by Julian Ralph and was asked the question : " What would you say to the young men of our city, if you could speak to them with command this day?" Mr. Roosevelt struck his hands together with emphasis and replied : " I would order them to work. I [18]