\ VW m WtM ft. ,r ^ ': / EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY PATRIOTISM THROUGH LITERATURE EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY By EUGENE C. BROOKS Formerly Professor of Education, Trinity College, Durham, North Carolina State Superintendent of Public Instruction, North Carolina Author of " The Story of Corn," " The Story of Cotton," " Agriculture and Rural Life Day," etc. Edited by LYMAN P. POWELL RAND McNALt? & COMPANY CHICAGO NEW YORK Copyright, igig, by RAND MCNALLY & COMPANY LC 101 THE CONTENTS PAGE The Preface .............. vii PART I. THE SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY IN GOVERNMENT CHAPTER I. WHY TEACHERS SHOULD STUDY THE AIMS OF THE WORLD WAR ........... 3 II. THE FIRST FRUITS OF AMERICANISM .... 8 III. How FREEDOM WAS PRESERVED IN THE UNITED STATES ............ 15 IV. PRUSSIANISM, OR How AUTOCRACY WAS PRE- SERVED IN THE WORLD ....... 25 V. PRUSSIANISM BEFORE THE BAR OF PUBLIC OPINION 37 VI. AMERICANISM BEFORE THE BAR OF PUBLIC OPINION 45 VII. How DEMOCRACY MADE ITSELF FIT .... 51 PART II. DEMOCRACY IN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS VIII. A NATIONAL IDEAL ......... 65 IX. AUTOCRACY IN SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION ... 70 X. COOPERATION IN SCHOOL MANAGEMENT ... 80 XL THE SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY IN STUDENT MANAGE- MENT ... .......... 89 XII. COOPERATION IN STUDENT MANAGEMENT ... 95 XIII. COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP IN A DEMOCRACY . . 108 XIV. ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY FOR BETTER LEADER- SHIP ............. 118 XV. DIRECTING THE ENERGIES OF THE COMMUNITY . 133 v VI THE CONTENTS PART III. A NEW EMPHASIS IN EDUCATION XVI. A NEW EMPHASIS IN CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION . . 147 XVII. REGARD FOR LAW AND ORDER THE BASIS FOR GOOD CITIZENSHIP 152 XVIII. SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHING RESPECT FOR LAW AND ORDER 160 XIX. SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHING RESPECT FOR LAW AND ORDER Continued 168 XX. A QUICKENED MORAL SENSE NECESSARY TO GOOD CITIZENSHIP 178 XXI. THE MORAL AIM IN TEACHING 185 XXII. IDLENESS A FOE TO GOOD CITIZENSHIP . . . 195 XXIII. THE SCHOOL MUST ATTACK THE PROBLEM OF IDLE- NESS 202 XXIV. IGNORANCE A FOE TO GOOD CITIZENSHIP . . . 213 XXV. LESSONS DRAWN FROM COMMUNITY AND NATIONAL LIFE 224 PART IV. AIDS TO TEACHERS XXVI. THE LIBRARY AND GOVERNMENT AIDS . . . 241 The Index 257 THE PREFACE This book is divided into four parts: (i) Democracy as contrasted with autocracy in public institutions is the theme of the first part. Since the ideal of educational institutions should be in a large measure the same as that of a nation, teachers, in order to keep the ideal pure and to lead the youth toward a larger freedom, should seek to understand what is the intent of the nation. Inci- dentally an outline for teaching American and modern European history is also given. (2) The reader is then carried from administration in political institutions to administration in educational institutions. Is the latter too autocratic even for a democracy? Is there enough of cooperation between superintendents and teachers, between teachers and pupils, and between the school and the community? Many concrete illustrations are given to show how cooperation may become more effective and how it may be increased. (3) The third part treats of classroom instruction. What should be its aim? How nearly should that aim coincide with the national ideal and how far short has it fallen? Here again there are many examples given showing that aims and methods in classroom instruction have been improved through a saner cooperation and by the use of subject matter drawn more from the world around the school. (4) The fourth part contains aids for the teacher. In the great reconstruction to take place throughout the world* as a result of the World War, the educational insti- tutions will undoubtedly be affected. But since there will not be a new political system created in America, viii THE PREFACE there will not be, in all probability, a new educational system created. It is true that before the war America was already working, feebly here, effectively there, but working in the right direction. But what is needed most is not a reorganization, not any radical changes in the system, but a real strengthening of the system which will infuse new life into some of its dead members, shift the emphasis from outworn formulas to subject matter and exercises vital to the new freedom, and enlarge the sphere of cooperation, which is the essence of democracy. The contents of this book have been developed in the classroom and in public lectures during a period of ten years. The quotations introducing each chapter and the concrete illustrations collected are evidences that educa- tional leaders have been thinking along these lines, that teachers were practicing the new creed even before the outbreak of the war, and that with the proper encourage- ment and cooperation teachers of America may hasten the day when needed reforms in education will be made all along the line. PART I THE SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY IN GOVERNMENT Right as the Supreme Power In every free country the best minds must now address them- selves to the means of deterring aggressive Governments from war and enthroning Public Right as the supreme Power in inter- national affairs. With goodwill, with an unselfish devotion to the highest and most permanent interests of humanity, nothing is impossible If things are not made better after this war the prospect will be darker than ever. Darker because the condition of the world will have grown so much worse that the recurrence of like calamities will have been recognized as a thing to be expected and the causes of those calamities as beyond all human cure. Rather let us strive that all the suffering this war has brought, and all the sacrifices of heroic lives it has witnessed, shall not have been in vain. JAMES BRYCE, Essays and Addresses in Wartime, chap, v, p. 183 Why then should a State shrink, in the name of "honor," from giving guarantees for its rectitude of conduct? Why should it not be willing to submit the question of what is honorable, in given circumstances, to those who can fairly measure its aims and motives, and await a verdict? DAVID JAYNE HILL, World Organization as Affected by the Nature of the Modern State, p. 66 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY CHAPTER I WHY TEACHERS SHOULD STUDY THE AIMS OF THE WORLD WAR A Message to Teachers May I not earnestly suggest to you the necessity that you should, by study and reflection, acquire a deep spiritual understanding of the fundamental principles of our government, whereof our consti- tution is only a single though the chief expression, in order that you may be the better able to communicate the spirit of our institutions to your pupils. The country must rely chiefly upon you to interpret America to the children of the new generation, to make them under- stand that it was by the law of its own nature that this nation was led into the World War, in order that for all time to come the prin- ciples which brought about its own birth should be made secure; that it was no new or strange doctrine which drew our country into association with European nations in this supreme enterprise, but rather a fulfillment and extension of the principles for which Wash- ington fought, a necessary application, indeed, of those principles to new conditions and to an age wherein it is no longer possible for one nation to live apart and to itself. Under your instruction the children should come to see that it was the high logic of events and the providence of God that the United States and Germany, the one the most consistent prac- titioner of the new creed of mankind, and the other the most consistent practitioner of the old, should thus meet in battle to determine whether the new democracy or the old autocracy should govern the world, and under your instruction the children should be made to understand the stern duty and the supreme privilege which belong to the United States of being interpreter to the world of those democratic principles which we believe to constitute the only force which can rid the world of injustice and bring peace and happiness to mankind. The objects for which this war is being waged with indescribable pain and sacrifice cannot be kept secure in the future unless the children of this new generation, for whose sake the war is in fact prosecuted, themselves understand democ- racy, not as a mere word but as a living and vital thing. It is for them that the sacrifice is made, and by them that the fruits of the sacrifice must be gathered and safeguarded 4 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY The meaning of this war and of America's part in it is not fully comprehended unless we understand the claims of humanity as well as of our own country upon us. It is our present glory that we are battling for oppressed humanity everywhere as well as for our own rights, and that America seeks no selfish ends. (Signed) WOODROW WILSON (Taken from a letter to the teachers of America sent to the Georgia Summer. School at4he University of Georgia in 1918.) The need of understanding the aims of the World War. The teacher of to-day is facing a new world. The great war has taken its heartless toll of lives, of national resources, and of states and nations, and we stand on the wreckage after the storm facing an uncertain future. But the obligation is laid upon the school to help society to carve out a new order for the next generation that will fulfill the expectations of those who sacrificed their lives that the evil in the old regime might be destroyed. Every enlightened nation on the globe faces the same problem, for all were caught in the awful tornado that has just passed over the world. Thirty-three nations were involved in it ; twenty-eight were actually engaged in war, while five others severed diplomatic relations with the Central Powers. These embraced 90 per cent of the peoples of the globe and about 82 per cent of all the land area of the earth. This war, therefore, is a part of the history of every important nation, barring a number of small nations which, combined, embrace less than 10 per cent of the peoples of the world, scattered throughout Central Africa, Central Asia, parts of South America and of Central America, and a few of the smaller nations of Europe. Whichever way we look for light, we have as our back- ground the causes and immediate effects of the war, and we are projected into the future from this background. WHY STUDY AIMS OF THE WORLD WAR 5 The causes and results of the war, therefore, will be told in the histories of every nation, even in those of the 10 per cent that are not directly involved but have been tremen- dously affected by it. Social, political, and ethical stand- ards have been so affected or modified that instruction in government, community civics, economics, the vocations, household arts, religion, modern languages, science, art, and literature will receive a new treatment or a different emphasis either in school or out of it as a direct result of the war. The first subject, therefore, that teachers should study is the aims of the war. As President Wilson said in his message to the teachers of America, "the country must rely chiefly upon you to interpret America to the children of the new generation, to make them understand that it was by the law of its own nature that this nation was led into the World War" and "that it is our present glory that we are battling for oppressed humanity everywhere as well as for our rights, and that America seeks no selfish ends." Government aids to the study of the war. The govern- ment, to aid the teachers in giving the proper kind of instruction, has already gone to large expense to supply material in logical sequence, not only for teachers but for everybody. This material is published in bulletin form and is distributed free or at a nominal cost in order that teachers especially may readily secure the necessary data for an interpretation of the causes as well as the aims of the war. (See Part IV for government aids to the study of the war.) Every teachers' reading circle can arrange a course in modern European history from these bulletins. The material is at hand for ready reference. It will be many years, however, before all this material can be wisely 6 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY judged and properly interpreted. But the school should begin now to use it and to interpret the acts of this nation in the light of its motive in entering the war. The Vir- ginia Teachers' Reading Circle made a beginning during the war and arranged the following course selected from these bulletins: The following pamphlets published by the Committee on Public Information are selected as one book required on American or Euro- pean History: (A) How the War Came to America, Red, White, and Blue Series, No. i. (B) President's Flag Day Speech, with Evidences of Germany's Plans, Red, White, and Blue Series, No. 4. (C) The War Message and the Acts behind It, War Information Series, No. 101. (D) The Government of Germany, War Information Series, No. 103. The purpose of this study. President Wilson has also suggested the purpose for this study: Under your instruction the children should come to see that it was the high logic of events and the providence of God that the United States and Germany, the one the most consistent prac- titioner of the new creed of mankind, and the other the most consistent practitioner of the old, should thus meet in battle to determine whether the new democracy or the old autocracy should govern the world, and under your instruction the children should be made to understand the stern duty and the supreme privilege which belong to the United States of being interpreter to the world of those democratic principles which we believe to constitute the only force which can rid the world of injustice and bring peace and happiness to mankind. The two antagonistic forces in the world are autocracy and democracy. The one is exemplified by Prussianism and the other by Americanism. At the close of the fourth year of the war Prussianism and Americanism appeared at the bar of public opinion in such a striking contrast WHY STUDY AIMS OF THE WORLD WAR 7 as to leave no doubt in the minds of at least 90 per cent of the peoples of the world as to which mankind has sworn to support. The second subject for teachers to study is the spirit of freedom at work in the world. We may trace it in the history of every country that has ever existed. We see it at work to-day in the nations that have survived the war, and autocracy seems to be doomed. We see it at work in large industrial corporations, and they are becoming democratized. We see it in educational insti- tutions, and the schoolmaster-autocrat is passing. We see it even in the family, and women are receiving equal privileges with the men. If autocracy was responsible for this war, it will be fought in every social organization. Teachers should, therefore, study the spirit of freedom at work in our social organizations in order to understand the purpose of democracy at work in the world. The third subject for teachers to study is the relation of this spirit of freedom to classroom instruction. What must be taught and how shall it be taught in order that the youth of America may be filled with this new spirit and led to act in harmony with it ? In the first part of the book, therefore, the spirit of freedom at work in the political world is contrasted with autocracy in order that teachers may comprehend some- thing of its tremendous power in the world. CHAPTER II THE FIRST FRUITS OF AMERICANISM The American's Creed I believe in the United States of America as a Government of the people, by the people, for the people, whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed: A Democracy in a Republic; A Sovereign Nation of many Sovereign States; A perfect Union, one and inseparable, established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity, for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes. I, therefore, believe it my duty to my country to love it, to support its constitution, to obey its laws, to respect its flag and to defend it against all enemies. WILLIAM TYLER PAGE Americanism Not vast extent of territory, not great population, not simply extraordinary statistics of national wealth, although they speak in eloquent words of energy and managing ability; but what we need more than anything else is an intelligent comprehension of the ideals of democracy. Those ideals are that every man shall have a fair and equal chance according to his talents. It is not an ideal of democracy that one alone shall emerge because of conspicuous ability, but there shall be a great advance of the plain people of the country, upon whom the prosperity of the country depends Quiet men, not noisy men; sensible men, not foolish; straight men, honest men, dependable men, real men that is what we mean by Americanism. CHARLES E. HUGHES Americanism. It is the law of his own nature that leads every man to give expression to the spirit that operates within, and so it is with a nation. This fact accounts for Prussianism. It accounts also for Ameri- canism. Then what is the law of its own nature that has led America to such an eminence in world affairs? What was done by the plain men of the Colonies on July 4, 1776, that the nations of the world should pause THE FIRST FRUITS OF AMERICANISM 9 one hundred and forty-two years later to commemorate their deeds? Christians, Mohammedans, Buddhists, Jews, all religions and all races, the mightiest empire in the world and the weakest nation in the brotherhood of nations all, save a small 9 per cent that were saturated with Prussianism, glorified the day, and it was proposed that it be made the Independence Day of the world. Here are the principles adopted on that date and suc- cessfully maintained for one hundred and forty-three years. - A copy of them should be hung in every school and interpreted to all children of this country as the first fruits of Americanism. We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; That they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalien. able rights; That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; That, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it. But why are they so significant to-day? As one small group of people then declared itself free and independent of a government that was destructive of these unalienable rights, so the world to-day has de- clared itself, free and independent of a great autocracy that is destructive of these same ends. How the world was governed in 1776. These principles can be more fully grasped if we make a survey of govern- ment in Europe as it was in 1776. What was the lot of the peoples of the world then? Each nation was ruled io EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY by a small but privileged class of autocrats. The great mass of people of Europe was in actual servitude, and their liberties were so restricted and their living conditions such that their lot was little above the common lot of serfs. With no voice in making or executing the laws, they were liable to fall into the hands of venal officers and suffer indignities at the hands of rulers who governed by divine right. With no vote in levying taxes, they were so bur- dened by enormous rates that, as a rule, they could not hope to build a competence for themselves or their chil- dren. With little or no opportunity to own the land they worked, they were compelled to live on the lord's land in miserable, unsanitary huts and give the results of their labors to support his idle court. With no hope of that larger freedom that the privileged classes enjoyed, they were compelled to support standing armies and to sacri- fice their lives if need be in the defense of the privileged autocrats and to enslave the common people of other lands. Having been taught for ages that they were inferior beings, and being actually oppressed with the sense of their own inferiority, they could find scarcely a man among them so bold as to make a loud protest against these ancient abuses, until near the middle of the eight- eenth century. Then it was that the number of those appealing to heaven for justice made polite Europe hearken "to strange voices and faint reverberations from out of the vague and cavernous shadows in which the common people moved." 1 A study of how the nations of the world were governed in 1776 and of the extent to which the people were con- sulted would be a profitable topic for all teachers. The practices of the governments of Europe as they existed 1 Morley, Life of Rousseau. THE FIRST FRUITS OF AMERICANISM n in 1776 should be contrasted, moreover, with the ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence. The origin of the doctrines found in the Declaration. The doctrines set forth in the Declaration of Independence, however, were not new in 1 7 76. They were not discovered by the signers of the Declaration of Independence. High- school teachers, therefore, who give instruction in Euro- pean history should trace the rise of liberty in the world and the attempts of the people to participate in their own government. The Magna Charta, the House of Commons, the Petition of Rights, the Bill of Rights, are monuments in English political history that led the people toward freedom. The American patriots of 1776 merely reasserted what many earnest men had declared in every age, that spirit- ual forces are greater than material forces, that human rights are superior to material rights, and that in the final estimate of a human soul its worth is not determined by material limitations, but by service not by its starting point, but by its attainments. The second stage in the growth of Americanism. The second chapter in the growth of Americanism comprises the adoption of the federal Constitution (1789) and the first ten amendments in 1791, the purpose of which is clearly set forth in the preamble: To form a more perfect union, To establish justice, To insure domestic tranquillity, To provide for the common defense, To promote the general welfare, To secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. A copy of the preamble likewise should be framed and 12 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY hung in every schoolroom in America in order that it may serve as a guide to teachers of American history and to all executives who direct the administration of the school, since it set a new standard in government by attempting to make the governors and the governed one and the same. It declared to the world that this nation would not set apart a special class to be known as the governors and another class to be known as the gov- erned, but that all classes were on the same plane polit- ically. A government was organized whereby the appointed governors and the governed sought to preserve the liberties of all and to promote the welfare of all. The governors and the governed had the same aim. What, therefore, is a charter, or a constitution? Why is it so sacred that when one nation speaks contemptu- ously of a contract or an agreement as a mere scrap of paper, the nations of the world draw their swords in its defense ? Teachers should make a study of a charter and a constitution in order to be able to answer this question. Should the aim of every charter or constitution be the same as that set forth in the preamble to the Constitution ? How the nations of the world were affected by the spirit of freedom. The spirit of freedom incorporated first in the new republic of the western continent soon found its devotees among the peoples of the monarchical nations of Europe, where it had been slumbering for ages. France, the home of Lafayette, was a storm center. A Declaration of the Rights of Man, somewhat similar to the American Declaration of Independence, was pro- mulgated. The old monarchy was destroyed, the first French Republic was born, and all Europe stood aghast at the terror that raged through the monarchical countries. THE FIRST FRUITS OF AMERICANISM 13 Liberal England, which had once put to death a king for his conscienceless absolutism, now fought against the autocratic power of George III, and after the loss of the American colonies emerged a more democratic nation and began its glorious march toward a democracy. The history of brave Belgium records at this time a new era of freedom for the people of that nation. Proud Spain felt the hard impact of this democratic protest, and one by one her colonies in North and in South America, moved by this modern spirit, followed the example of the thirteen English colonies, shook off imperialism, and emerged each in its own way a more democratic nation. The Holy Roman Empire, which had imposed its form upon the greater part of Western Europe since the days of Charlemagne, fell to pieces in this era, and Prussia and the other German principalities freed from imperialism were affected by the reasonableness of this democratic spirit. Austria, the proud citadel of imperialism, composed of a group of races that threatened the disintegration of this ancient center of the Holy Roman Empire, felt the thrill of the spirit of freedom that was now at work every- where. The vast domain of the Russian Empire shook off much of its medieval tyranny when Napoleon jarred the world, and the outlines of a modern Russia began to take shape at the close of the European wars. Italian cities and states that had been the football of imperialism since the downfall of the Caesars now dreamed of a new nation and saw signs of a new freedom. This spirit of liberty was at work in every European nation. Every king trembled on his throne, and every I 4 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY special privileged class, frightened, stood at Pentecost to answer the world-old question, "Am I my brother's keeper?" The most masterful man of the age, one of the greatest autocrats in modern history, was Napoleon Bonaparte. But by a coalition of the nations of the world against him he was overthrown, and then the nations came together in the Congress of Vienna, in 1815, to take a new inven- tory of Europe and to mark out future lines for the growth of the peoples of every nation. Democracy and autocracy had come definitely before the bar of public opinion. But democracy was con- demned at Vienna, and the future peace of the world was thus endangered. CHAPTER III HOW FREEDOM WAS PRESERVED IN THE UNITED STATES Americanism I do most earnestly wish to see the highest degree of education given to the highest degree of genius, and all degrees of it, so much as may enable them to read and understand what is going on in the world and to keep their part of it going on right. THOMAS JEFFERSON Let our object be, our country, our whole country, and nothing but our country. And, by the blessing of God, may that country itself become a vast and splendid monument, not of oppression and terror, but of Wisdom, of Peace, and of Liberty, upon which the world may gaze with admiration forever! DANIEL WEBSTER Let us go to the limpid fountain of unadulterated patriotism, and, performing a solemn lustration, return divested of all selfish, sinister, and sordid impurities, and think alone of our God, our country, our consciences, and our glorious Union, that Union without which we shall be torn into hostile fragments, and sooner or later become the victims of military despotism, or foreign domination. HENRY CLAY Undoubtedly the highest function of statesmanship is by degrees to accommodate the conduct of communities to ethical laws, and to subordinate the conflicting self-interests of the day to higher and more permanent concerns. But it is on the understanding, and not on the sentiment, of a nation that all safe legislation must be based. JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL What are the favorite maxims of democracy? A strict observance of justice and public faith, and a steady adherence to virtue. These, sir, are the pnnciples of a good government. No mischief, no mis- fortune, ought to deter us from a strict observance of justice and public faith. JOHN MARSHALL Every citizen an acting member of the government. The Constitution was simply a written guaranty that the 15 1 6 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY people of the new republic would honestly strive to pre- serve freedom and equality of opportunity for all men. Other governments, however, had given guaranties to preserve freedom, but had failed. The fact that America was able to maintain the principle that all just govern- ment rests upon the consent of the governed, in spite of mistakes and in spite of foreign interference, gave it its highest claim to world fame on July 4, 1918. How liberty was preserved in America. But how can the blessing of liberty be preserved? It was Thomas Jefferson who gave the answer. " Make," he said, "every citizen an acting member of the government." This was an unattempted aim in the world at that time, but it is fundamental to-day, and all leaders, or those who hope to become leaders, in a democracy would do well to bear it in mind, especially all educational leaders whose dream it is to make the school the community center. "Every citizen an acting member of the government" is a good motto for any school or any other organization. It is the essence of Americanism. But how can every citizen become an acting member of the government? i. By subdivision of duties. Again it was Thomas Jefferson who answered this question: "It is by division and subdivision of duties alone, that all matters great and small can be managed to perfection. And the whole is cemented by giving to every citizen personally a part in the administration of public affairs." The purpose, therefore, of the federal Constitution, state constitutions, city charters, etc., is to subdivide duties in such a way as to give as far as possible to every citizen personally a part in the administration of public affairs. We have, therefore, the duties of government thus apportioned: (i) the federal government for all HOW FREEDOM WAS PRESERVED 17 matters that concern foreign affairs or that pertain to the welfare of the people as a whole; (2) the state government for what relates to the citizens of the state exclusively; (3) county government for the duties and concerns of the county; and (4) town or district government for the numerous and vital concerns of the neighborhood. Community clubs are, therefore, very valuable if they seek to enlist the cooperation of the people of a com- munity in civic or community progress. The strength of the American government lies in the individual communities in the freedom, the character, the intelligence, and the prosperity of the individuals that make up each community. Hence teachers everywhere should be conscious of the fact that, when they are enlist- ing the aid of every citizen in the community, they are not only helping to build a community, but are helping to build the nation as well. It is the people who select, directly or indirectly, all the officials of the county, the state, and the nation, establish schools, promote all inter- nal improvements, establish justice, secure domestic tranquillity, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. Such is the meaning of "the consent of the governed." No other nation in the world was ever so dependent upon the character and intelligence of the individual members of the community as the United States. The strength of an absolute monarchy depends primarily upon the strength of the ruling class, but the strength of a democracy depends upon the character and strength of each individual unit. 2. By a free public-school system. A school system fit for a democracy had to be established in order to carry out the high purpose of the Declaration of Independence 18 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY and the Constitution. Democracy has in view first a better citizenship. Three years after independence was declared, therefore, the author of the Declaration, Thomas Jefferson, gave to his native state the outline of such a system. The ideals of the school and of the nation were to be one and the same. As the nation was divided and subdivided, so the educational system was planned to parallel it a school for each district, a high school for a county or a group of counties, a college and university for the state and nation one system supported "at the common expense of all" and free to all people, "without regard to wealth, birth, or other accidental condition or circumstances." No other nation had ever conceived such a system, and to-day it has no parallel among the nations of the world. Such a system in Europe was impossible because society was so organized and so governed in the monarchical nations of the world that the rulers could not think in terms of such a system. Education in Europe was for the classes, not for the masses. It was nearly the middle of the nineteenth century, however, before even the outlines of this democratic educational system began to take definite shape even in America, and nearly the twentieth century before the system was completed. America was working alone at the problem. Social institutions are slow in developing. Sometimes it takes a century or more for them to reach maturity. The American system is not a century old. It is very inadequate in all the states even to-day, in some more than in others. But, notwithstanding its defects, it is the agency that has aided the nation in its growth toward democracy, and it helped to bring America to that HOW FREEDOM WAS PRESERVED 19 eminence on July 4, 1918, when all the great nations of the world, two excepted, paid their tributes to the wisdom of its founders and builders. Teachers should study the history of education in America since the establishment of this democratic sys- tem. What has been its purpose? How has it sought to include all the children of all the people the poor and the rich, the humble and the aristocratic? To what extent has it raised the character and intelligence and industry of all citizens? Has it kept alive and nourished the true American spirit by making its citizens, both native and foreign born, fit to become acting members in the government ? 3. By granting citizenship to people of all nationalities. In the first place, the broad principles were laid down that all who came to America from any other enlightened nation should have citizenship on equal terms with American citizens, and, since the government rests upon the consent of the governed, they too were given equal rights and made partakers in and of the government, and every office was open to them save two those of presi- dent and vice-president. It was this act especially that taught the oppressed of every land the blessings of liberty and helped to sow the seeds of democracy throughout the world. Other nations had offered their countries as places of refuge, but it was America that gave her immigrants a permanent home and made them partners in the government. The wisdom of this act is proved by the single fact that untold numbers of obscure foreigners have left their native countries, have come to America, and have achieved dis- tinction and even world-wide fame under the stimulating influence of liberty and equality of opportunity. Any 20 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY foreigner whatsoever who abuses this trust is certainly not worthy of the citizenship of a free country. 4. By the growth of its own nature. The self-evident truths expressed in the Declaration of Independence, the purposes of government as outlined in the preamble of the Constitution, the organization of a nation in accordance with these principles, and a public-school system to per- petuate these principles, all produced a nation that was unique in the world at the beginning of the twentieth century and admired by all except the Central Powers. But what are the outstanding achievements of these principles at work in the nation? a) The Monroe Doctrine that guarantees the growth of republican government in the western continent. 6) The extension of suffrage in order to increase the number of citizens who may become active members of the government. c) Abolition of involuntary servitude. d) The growth of the rights of laboring people and the extension of the privilege of the consent of the governed to large industries. e) The protection of the weak from the ruthlessness of the strong and the safeguarding of life and human welfare, thus keeping before all people the principle that right and justice must prevail in all human intercourse. /) The maintenance of a policy with all nations, both great and small, in harmony with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, that liberty may be preserved in the world and right and justice prevail in all international relationships. Teachers should study the deeper purpose of our government in order to trace the growth of freedom in America, showing where at times our leaders departed HOW FREEDOM WAS PRESERVED 21 from the straight and narrow path, but how over and over again the nation was brought back and started anew toward the goal that free people of all lands hold as an ideal for the race. The youth of America need such a study to give them a standard by which to measure conduct the conduct of public officials as well as of individuals. But suppose we examine more in detail into America's foreign policy, since it is admitted to-day that a nation's standard should not be lower than that of its individual citizens in their personal relations one with another. 5. By a just foreign policy. George Washington in his Farewell Address laid down this principle for the guidance of our nation in its dealings with foreign countries: "Observe good faith and justice toward all nations." This is another good motto for the school. But how has this principle been observed in history? a) Arbitration instead of war: The most important way, perhaps, in which America has endeavored to observe good faith and justice is by its willingness and readiness to settle disputes by arbitration rather than by war. "The first treaty of modern times which provided for arbitration was the so called Jay Treaty between the United States and Great Britain in 1794 .... that pro- vided that a number of points should be referred to com- missioners .... and from the date of the Jay Treaty up to the end of the nineteenth century 216 cases have been arbitrated." 1 Several such cases have been matters of great importance. At the beginning of the World War this country was engaged in an attempt to have all nations agree to settle all their disputes by arbitration rather than by war. 1 Tuft, The Real Business of Living. 22 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY 6) Monroe Doctrine: During the first half-century of our independence the absolute monarchies of Europe sought to restrict freedom in America and the growth of republican governments in the Western Hemisphere. It appeared, therefore, that democracy must again draw the sword and fight for its very existence. It was Great Britain (and Americans should never forget the fact) that aided this nation in so stating the rule of this continent that European autocracy was forced to respect the new democratic nation. This new rule of freedom is known as the Monroe Doctrine, the promulgation of which (1823) checked the growth of political autocracy in the Western Hemisphere and set it apart as the home of democracy. c) Foreign wars: In the one hundred and forty-three years of this country's history America has waged no war against its neighboring republics save in one instance, and since the Congress of Vienna (1815), a period of over a hundred years, it has waged no war, with perhaps one exception, that was not conducted in the interest of social welfare and human freedom. That one, if it is an excep- tion, was the Mexican War of the 40*3. The next foreign controversy of importance in which a show of force was used was against Japan in 1861, when foreigners were murdered and the American flag was insulted. As a result Japan was forced to pay an indem- nity to the nations injured. But some years later Amer- ica, in the name of justice and fair play, returned the amount with interest the first example in history, per- haps, of a nation showing to the world that it would not seek material advantage at the expense of other nations. In the name of human brotherhood America struck down the tyrant's hand in Cuba and gave to the world a new nation an unprecedented act in history. HOW FREEDOM WAS PRESERVED 23 In the name of humanity American armies entered China to put an end to the Boxer uprising. But instead of exacting indemnities as other nations did, this govern- ment turned back to China, for the education of the Chinese youth, the sum apportioned to her by the peace council an unparalleled act in history. d) International fairness : In the name of international fairness and good will the Congress of the United States, after it had enacted a law governing the Panama tolls, reversed itself voluntarily when it was made clear that the nations of the world thought America was not keeping faith in the observance of an old treaty, although its words were ambiguous and susceptible of more than one interpretation. But, as President Wilson declared, "we are too self-respecting a nation to interpret with a too strained or refined reading the words of our promises just because we have power enough to give us leave to read them as we please " l a new standard for the nations of the world. e) Going to war as a last resort : When the liberties of the people were threatened by Prussianism and it began to appear as a certainty that autocracy, personified in the rulers of the Imperial German Government, had set out to destroy liberty in the world, President Wilson, the Chief Executive of the greatest democracy in the world, appeared before Congress, April 2, 1917, and, responding to the summons, uttered these words: "The right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion 1 Brooks, Woodrow Wilson as President. 24 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free." 1 Such is Americanism found at its best in America's dealings with the other nations of the world. This spirit should find a place in every school in this land. The growth of right and justice in American govern- ment. In teaching American history, therefore, instruc- tors should ever keep in mind the purposes of government as expressed in the preamble to the Constitution, and in the development of each new topic pupils should be led to answer these questions: Did it establish justice? or Did it insure domestic tranquillity? or Did it provide for the common defense ? or Did it promote general welfare? or Did it secure the blessings of liberty? If it did none of these things, or if it violated even one of these principles, how far did the people depart from the ways of a just government? This same standard may be used to-day in judging the value of local, state, or national policies and the conduct of public men. Even the purpose of the school may be measured by it. 1 From address to Congress, April 2, 1917. CHAPTER IV Prussianism The Prince is to the nation he governs what the head is to the man; it is his duty to see, think, and act for the whole community, that he may procure it every advantage of which it is capable. FREDERICK II of Prussia Statesmanship can be reduced to these principles: First, to main- tain your power, and according to circumstances, to extend it; Second, to form an alliance only for your own advantage; Third, to command fear and respect even in the most disastrous times. FREDERICK II of Prussia You have given yourselves to me body and soul; for you, there is only one enemy and that is my enemy. It may happen I pray God avert it that I order you to shoot down your mothers, your brothers, nay your parents, but then without a murmur you must obey my commands. WILLIAM II, Emperor of Germany, to his soldiers From childhood I have been under the influence of five men, Alexander, Julius Caesar, Theodoric Second, Frederick the Great, Napoleon. Each of these men dreamed a dream of world empire they failed. I am dreaming a dream of German World Empire and my mailed fist shall succeed. Explanation of Kaiser at Conference "The Pan-German Empire," Potsdam Palace Two roads before the nations of the world. In the reconstruction of Europe after the Congress of Vienna (1815) two roads lay open to the nations, one leading to democracy, the other to autocracy. The former was still somewhat vague and the end much too uncertain. The latter was well known and had been practiced for ages and maintained by armed force. Austria, under the 25 26 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY leadership of Prince Metternich, who had dominated the Congress of Vienna, therefore led the reactionary forces against democracy, and again autocracy was glorified by the monarchical rulers of Europe. But this was to be the last time. The spirit of freedom was challenging the rule of autocracy. A new road to freedom was being hewn out by the people of the world, and for the first time in the world's history democracy was strong enough to challenge boldly the authority of autocracy, with the results outlined in the preceding chapter, and many nations, especially England, began at once to hearken to the call of humanity. One nation, however, that emerged from that revolution to impress itself upon the world and to choose autocracy rather than democracy was Prussia. Although her rulers had relied upon the sword for self-preservation, and her people were trained to believe that warfare was the great- est profession, the spirit of freedom was also at work in that nation, as it was in every other civilized country. The four decades from 1830 to 1870 saw a wonderful change take place among the nations of the world. Man- hood suffrage was enlarged. Humanitarianism began to rise above materialism and individual isolation. Human slavery was abolished, and, in spite of the Congress of Vienna and the powerful influence of Prince Metternich, the world was moving slowly along this new highway to greater freedom for the masses. But the old autocrats were too reactionary and too contemptuous to give even right and justice a hearing. By the middle of the cen- tury, therefore, nearly every nation of Europe was again in the throes of a revolution. Democracy and autocracy again on trial. Democ- racy and autocracy had again come before the bar of HOW AUTOCRACY WAS PRESERVED 27 public opinion. When the hour struck in 1848, nearly half the monarchs of Europe had within a few months been either deposed or forced to concede constitutions guaranteeing to the people liberty and right and justice in government. This was the second great call to the nations of the world to decide which path the governments would follow that leading to democracy or that leading to autocracy. This time the handwriting was unmistakable. It now became a fixed policy of the leading nations to secure the blessings of liberty to all people and to provide for the common welfare. Prussia was the conspicuous excep- tion. Wars had been the chief occupation of rulers. To wage a successful war had been the chief function of government to enslave other people, to make other countries contribute to its wealth and splendor and power, not to secure the blessings of liberty for the people of the world. But at this time the nations had to decide again which they would serve, autocracy or democracy, and the Prussian rulers chose autocracy. The German people, however, notwithstanding their long history of acquies- cence under the rule of autocracy, did not submit without a struggle. They now clamored for a constitution and for more freedom. But they were defeated after much bloodshed, and many patriotic Germans turned their backs on Prussian autocracy and came to America, pre- ferring to abandon their own country for a home in a new nation where the spirit of freedom was protected, rather than submit to the authority of such a government. Many of America's patriotic leaders in the late war for world freedom were either those political refugees or their descendants. 28 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY But in Prussia autocracy triumphed and was again able in 1850 to reassert the "divine right of the monarch to reign at the head of the army, the church, and the whole civil government." The success of Prussian arms was all the proof needed by those autocratic rulers for their authority, and within two more decades Prussia became, perhaps, the most efficient military power in Europe. The nations had at last come definitely to the parting of the ways. One group was following the lead of Amer- ica. Another was following autocratic Prussia, and in 1914 these two groups of nations came again to judgment with the result already known. How Prussianism acquired its power. But how did Prussianism acquire so much power? How was the spirit of democracy curbed and the divine right of the autocrat made a part of Prussian religion? i. The government of Germany. The ideals of a people find expression sooner or later in their forms of govern- ment. Education being "the organization of acquired habits of conduct and tendencies to behavior," it is not a very difficult task for a set of strong rulers to give direction to the tendencies of a people and then habituate them to ways of living in harmony with the adopted ideals. How- ever, if freedom is denied and the fundamental principles of right and justice are generally violated, no amount of autocracy can keep the spirit of divinity within the human soul from voicing a protest. The history of the peasant uprisings and of revolutions is evidence of this fact. A study of the government of Germany, therefore, is essential to a better understanding of the habits of the German people who have fought from time to time against the growing autocracy in their government. In the first place, the Emperor of Germany, at the outbreak of the HOW AUTOCRACY WAS PRESERVED 29 World War, was the absolute head of the Imperial German Government and king of Prussia. He appointed all executives of the Empire, and they were responsible to him alone. The executive authority was vested in two bodies: (i) the military, or the General Staff, which controlled the army and the navy and was the most powerful body in the Empire; (2) the civic, with the Imperial Chancellor and the many secretaries of state, which of course controlled internal policies and all for- eign relations. But the civic was so thoroughly under the domination of the military that it was almost a sub- ordinate department. The legislative authority of the Empire was vested in two bodies: the Bundesrat and the Reichstag. The Bundesrat, or the House of Lords, was composed of sixty-one members, but the Emperor appointed twenty, while the hereditary princes of the other German states appointed the remainder. None was elected by the people. The Reichstag, or the House of Commons, was a representative body, but all of its acts were approved by the Bundesrat. Even the internal administration of the German state was just as autocratic. The Emperor, who was king of Prussia, determined the membership in the Landtag, the legislative body of Prussia, but the house of representa- tives was so selected that wealth and royal authority determined the membership. The government was so organized that it kept the citi- zens from becoming acting members of the government. This is best illustrated in the way the voters were divided. The small number of wealthy landlords, 4 per cent of the population that paid the first third of the taxes, con- stituted one class of voters. Those who paid the second 30 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY third of the taxes, or about 14 per cent of the population, another class ; and the last third, or 82 per cent of the popu- lation, constituting the great mass of citizens who paid the remainder of the taxes. Each class cast the same number of votes. In Germany, therefore, property and the privileged families ruled. It was always thus in an autocracy. 2. The foreign policy. Prussia, within a century, has grown from a strong state to a great empire. It has waged many wars, but none in the interest of human freedom. At a time when the world was moving toward greater freedom, Prussia took advantage of the confusion to strengthen its autocracy and to increase its dominion. Denmark was, perhaps, its weakest neighbor. A quarrel was, therefore, begun, resulting in a war (1864) with Denmark, and Schleswig-Holstein was ruthlessly taken and added to Prussia. This was followed by a war with Austria (1866), deliberately planned, which destroyed Austria's primacy over the German Confederation, and four more principalities were added. Moreover, twenty- one of the lesser German states were constrained to join Prussia in the North German Confederation, of which the king of Prussia became hereditary president. Prussia was jealous of the power of France. Every autocrat sooner or later becomes obsessed with the notion that divinity has decreed him to be the greatest in the kingdoms of the world. By intrigue and false messages war with France was precipitated, and as a result Alsace- Lorraine was taken and added to Prussia. Moreover, the four South German states that had held aloof from the North German Confederation, now dazzled by the gilded power of autocratic Prussia, came into the new federation, and the new Imperial German Government HOW AUTOCRACY WAS PRESERVED 31 was created at Versailles while the Prussian army held Paris. Thus in 1871 the German Empire was created after years of conquest, annexation, and unscrupulous diplomacy. But, worse than this, a people that once struggled for liberty was now molded into a shape to do the bidding of a conscienceless autocrat. The people of the conquered territories were never consulted. It mattered little to Prussia whether or not these annexed people desired to be under German govern- ment. Both land and people were held as so much chattel to enrich the kingdom of Prussia and enhance the glory of the autocratic Hohenzollerns, whose national policy has been that each ruler should increase the size of his kingdom, regardless of the rights of other nations or the welfare of other people. And it was this military menace that kept Europe in an armed state, and the people under a heavy financial burden. 3. Prussian education. We are better able to get the German perspective through a survey of the educational system. We have already seen how intimately related are the ideals of education and those of the state. In America the purpose of the system is to give equal oppor- tunity to the children of all classes, regardless of their wealth, birth, or other circumstances. There is one public-school system for all, and it extends from the kindergarten through the university. This is not true in Germany, nor was it true in any monarchical country before the war. Since the right of suffrage or the right to participate in the government depends largely upon the wealth or the privileges of its citizens, there is not one system in Germany, but many systems. They follow class lines. There is one school for the masses, which is free, and it is the only school that 32 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY is free. There is another school for the classes, which is out of reach of the masses. Thus the government makes a marked distinction between the governors and the governed. The Volksschule, or the school for the masses, provides theoretically eight years of schooling. But in reality it gives little more than six years. What the German rulers expect of this school is a Kaiser-serving citizen- "Unthinking obedience to superiors is the ideal." About 90 per cent of the school population is enrolled in this school. But, as a rule, the way is not open for students to pass from this school to higher institutions. "The growth of socialism among this class," says Paulsen, Germany's greatest educational authority, "has made many German leaders urge that this nine-tenths of soci- ety receive no education at all that it may not have any socialistic aspirations for improving its position or ques- tioning the necessity of obeying its superiors." 1 The inadequate support of this school by the nation is evidence that the rulers do not intend the masses to have an opportunity to secure equal advantages with the classes. The schools for the classes, in which barely one-tenth of the children are taught, are the schools the Germans extol. There are to be found the best teachers, the best methods, and the best equipment. These are the schools that foreigners have been urged to visit. They lead to the universities, through which avenue the German youth must pass, as a rule, to governmental preferment and to positions of trust and power in the Empire. In this way the school system of an autocracy virtually closes the door of opportunity to the masses. 1 McConaughy, "Germany's Educational Failure," School Review, June, 1918. HOW AUTOCRACY WAS PRESERVED 33 In the earlier part of the nineteenth century the German universities were characterized by a broad cosmopoli- tanism. At the same time the people of Germany were asking for a constitution. But through the dictations of the ruling classes teachers and professors of the univer- sities have become "rabid imperialists and adulators of Prussian aims and Prussian methods," until even the educational system of Germany has become an instru- ment of tyranny. After Germany became Prussianized, the state became a vast machine and its rulers were omnipotent. Teachers and ministers of the gospel became state officials, and their employment and promotion were regulated by state authority; "and all state authority is in the last analysis an emanation of the Emperor. Nothing of importance can happen in Germany in direct and open opposition to his will The Imperial German Government lays down the principles according to which school instruction is to be given; its subordinate organs, pro- vincial, county, and township supervisors, see to it that the principles prescribed are lived up to." 1 The Germans do not use textbooks, that is, "books containing the text of that which the pupils have to learn by heart. Their school books are not textbooks, but manuals, exercise books, guides, example books." It is the teacher who furnishes the body of the matter to be learned in the German schools. The teacher being a government official, and promotion being dependent upon governmental favor, it is easy for the ruling class to shape the opinions of the people, maintain caste in society, exalt the military above the civic, and glorify wealth and the aristocracy and the ruling family. 1 Klemm, Public Education in Germany and in the United States. 34 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY The Kaiser has humiliated teachers who dared to criticize members of the ruling family. He has refused his consent to awards for research in history because the writers failed to glorify the Hohenzollerns or intimated that the Emperor could do wrong, and he has diverted prizes to less meritorious writers. Historians have been disgraced; teachers browbeaten until the whole educa- tional system has been dwarfed into one vast machine which teaches the youth to bow down to imperialism, worship material power, and even justify the wrongdoing of autocracy. Such are the fruits of Prussianism. "So long as professors and writers did not express doubts of the rightful importance of the state, of the divine appointment and holy mission of the Hohen- zollern dynasty, or of the high destiny of Deutschtum, they were permitted to lecture and write about anything they pleased." 1 Obedience to the Kaiser's will is taught as a religious duty, and to inculcate this duty on the part of the people is esteemed a service to the state. But the Imperial German Government was not con- tent to confine this instruction, this Kultur, within its territory. It sought to counteract the growth of democ- racy in other countries by organizing education and carry- ing on a propaganda that might appeal to individuals of an autocratic nature. Such a purpose to Prussianize the world, therefore, accounts for the establishment of schools by Germans in America of the German pattern in which only the German language, German national songs, and German civilization were to be taught. This is only one of the many subtle means adopted by Germany to destroy freedom in America and in the world. 1 Ambassador Hill. HOW AUTOCRACY WAS PRESERVED 35 Teachers of America, therefore, should understand the difference between the purposes of the German schools and those of the American schools. The results of a half-century of education in the world are now being tried by fire, and the world is turning to America as never before to learn of her institutions and her ideals. Thus, through its form of government, through its relation to foreign countries, and through its educational system, Prussianism reached its point of development in 1914 when it became necessary again for democracy and autocracy to meet in mortal combat, and we believe that autocracy has at last been overthrown. The World War. It is not difficult to see that democ- racy and autocracy could not live in the world without a serious conflict. Either good or evil must ultimately triumph, and this war seems to have brought out the best in democracy and the worst in autocracy. But how did the war begin? It matters little what pretext was used. If it had not been the murder of the Austrian Crown Prince, it would have been something else. Prussianism desired more power. The dream of Mittel-Europa, the divine right of autocracy, the contempt for small nations and for democracy these are the fruits of Prussianism. In 1914 it deliberately called the nations of the world to judgment, and the World War was the result. How two nations, the one the most constant prac- titioner of the old, the other the most constant practi- tioner of the new creed of mankind, appeared before the bar of public opinion will be treated in the next two chapters. Topics for teachers. The foregoing discussion is merely an outline of European history since the Congress 36 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY of Vienna. The Board of Education of England advises all teachers of secondary schools to make a study of European history beginning with the Congress of Vienna (1815), but to lead up to that study with a review of the Revolution in the last half of the eighteenth century. What were the causes of that revolution? How did the Congress of Vienna settle the revolution? How was it in favor of autocracy and opposed to democracy? What was the Holy Alliance? What were some of its alleged purposes that affected America? How did autocracy and democracy again appear before the bar of public opinion in the middle of the nineteenth century? How did the nations come to the parting of the ways? Why did so many patriotic Germans come to America in the 40*5 and early 50*3? Give a bio- graphical sketch of one or more who became famous in America. CHAPTER V PRUSSIANISM BEFORE THE BAR OF PUBLIC OPINION The Aims of the World War These are the ends for which the associated peoples of the world are fighting and which must be conceded them before there can be peace: 1. Every power anywhere that can secretly of its own choice bring war upon the world must be bound or destroyed. 2. All questions must be settled in accordance with the wishes of the people concerned. 3. The same respect for honor and for law that leads honorable men to hold their promises as sacred and to keep them at any cost must direct the nations in dealing with one another. 4. A league of nations must be formed strong enough to insure the peace of the world. These great objects can be put into a single sentence. What we seek is the reign of law, based upon the consent of the governed and sustained by the organized opinion of mankind. WOODROW WILSON at Mount Vernon, July 4, 1918 Population and land area of the globe. In 1914, the year of the beginning of the World War, the population of the globe, it is estimated, was about 1,730,000,000, and the land area, excluding the most uninhabitable parts of the Polar regions, was about 50,700,000 square miles. How much of the man power and material resources of the world were thrown into this great war and what percentage was destroyed will never be fully known. However, it is not difficult to determine how the popu- lation of the globe was divided on the issues involved and how much of the land area with all of its resources was thrown into the conflict. Such a study will bring out forcefully the judgment of the world at the end of the fourth year of the war. 37 38 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY During the first months only little more than half the population and land area were involved. But one nation after another was forced into the conflict until over 90 per cent of the peoples of the world were involved. As each country was drawn into the struggle it broke diplo- matic relations with or declared war against all the nations in league with that one. Therefore in references to the entrance of the nations into the conflict mention will be made only of the first declaration of war, which serves to point out the country each nation felt to be most dangerous to its liberties or to its ambitions. The beginning of the World War in 1914. It is well known that this terrible war was begun on July 28, 1914, when Austria declared war on Serbia. Moreover, it is generally believed that the incidents leading up to that event were dictated by the rulers of the Imperial German Government, who had directed affairs because of their lust for world power. As soon, therefore, as Austria had taken the initiative, and of course the blame for starting the war, Germany struck with such pre- paredness as to stagger human reason and disturb the equilibrium of the world. As a result almost the entire population and land area of the globe were mobilized into two great opposing forces the Central Powers and the Allies. The following events of the year 1914 are significant: July 28, Austria declared war on Serbia. August i, Germany declared war on Russia. August 3, Germany declared war on France. August 4, Germany declared war on Belgium. August 4, Great Britain declared war on Germany. August 8, Montenegro declared war on Austria. PRUSSIANISM ON TRIAL 39 August 23, Japan declared war on Germany. November 3, Russia declared war on Turkey. November 23, Portugal declared war on Germany. By the close of the year, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey were at war with Serbia, Russia, Great Brit- ain, France, Japan, Montenegro, Portugal, and Belgium three nations against eight, involving the population and the land area of the globe as follows : Population Land Area in Square Miles Central Powers I ?1. 014,000 2,2O7,OOO Allies 796,088,000 27,559,000 Neutral 782,677.000 20,325,000 Total 1,729,699,000 SO.OQI.OOO About 55 per cent of the population of the globe and 59 per cent of the land area were involved. No wonder the gravest apprehension for the future was felt by all thoughtful people! The neutral nations, however, natu- rally felt that, if there were anything like equal pre- paredness for the war as was asserted, the Allies with all their man power and resources would soon make quick work of the Central Powers. But what were the underlying causes of the war? It appeared to outsiders during the first months of the struggle that the conflict was the climax of international jealousies of long standing and that it were best for neutral nations to stand aside and let the militaristic powers fight it out. The nations in 1915. The war came so suddenly and the confusion resulting from it was so great and so far- EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY reaching that men of all nations were bewildered. They could not understand it. But in 1915 three more coun- tries were drawn into the conflict: May 23, Italy declared war on Austria. May 24, San Marino declared war on Austria. October 14, Bulgaria declared war on Serbia. The Central Powers had drawn in Bulgaria; and the Allies, the little principality of San Marino and Italy. The line-up, therefore, at the end of the second year was as follows: Population Land Area in Square Miles Central Powers 156,699,000 2,25O,OOO Allies 833,145,000 29,267,000 Neutral 739,855,000 l8.S74.OOO Total. . I.72Q.6QQ.OOO SO.OQI.OOO The ruthlessness of Prussianism, the bloody trail of the Turks, the horrors, the unbelievable stories of rape and murder that began to float over the world, could not at first be comprehended by the neutrals. It was psy- chologically impossible, and still the question would not down: What are the nations fighting for? What will the end of it all be? The nations in 1916. It was not until the third year that the aims of the war with all their ghastly horrors began to appear. The neutral nations were busy sifting the true from the false and at the same time trying to save themselves. But in the meantime in 1916 two more nations contiguous to the Central Powers were drawn in, but on the side of the Allies : August 27, Rumania declared war on Austria. November 23, Greece declared war on Bulgaria. PRUSSIANISM ON TRIAL The line up in 1916, therefore, was as follows: Population Land Area in Square Miles Central Powers 156,699,000 2. 2 5O.OOO Allies 84.5.74.^.000 39,368,000 Neutral 727.255.OOO 18.4.7^,000 Total. . 1.720.600.000 50.00 1. OOO The Central Powers had not gained a friend among the nations. But they were prosecuting the war so vigorously, and with such certainty of success, that their aims, becoming more and more apparent each day, were beginning to carry terror to the rest of the world. The nations in 1917. It was not until the fourth year of the war that the neutral nations were finally convinced that the Central Powers, led by Germany, had set out on a conquest for world power. The Presi- dent of the United States had sought to determine for America and the remainder of the world the aims of the war. By degrees it became clearer and clearer that not only the liberties of the world, but the ancient standards of right and justice, were being assailed. It was then that almost all the other nations threw their man power and resources with the Allies to break Germany's power and destroy Prussianism. Germany as a nation was outlawed and henceforth treated as a common criminal among the nations of the world. No other nation has ever appeared so despicable in the eyes of such a large part of the world's population. In 1917 seven more nations came into the war: April 6, United States declared that a state of war existed between the United States and Germany. April 7, Panama declared war on Germany. EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY April 7, Cuba declared war on Germany. July 22, Siam declared war on Germany. August 4, Liberia declared war on Germany. August 14, China declared war on Germany. October 26, Brazil declared war on Germany. In addition to these Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Santo Domingo, and Uruguay severed diplomatic relations with Germany, making a total of twelve nations that broke with Germany in 1917. The line-up, therefore, at the close of this year was as follows: Population Land Area in Square Miles Central Powers . . I 56. 6QQ.OOO 2,25O,OOO Allies 1,401,672,000 40,498,000 Neutrals 171,328,000 7.^4.^.OOO Total 1,720,600.000 50,091,000 Still the Central Powers had not gained a friend. But the strength of the Allies had increased until it embraced about 80 per cent of the man power and of the material resources of the globe. The nations in 1918. The nations of the world had taken a solemn vow that Prassianism, outlawed and despised, must be destroyed, root and branch, in order that the moral equilibrium of the universe might be restored. No other matter counted now. The nations of the world had only one supreme task. In this year five more nations threw their resources on the side of the Allies. They were small, to be sure; but the moral effect was tremendous. April 21, Guatemala declared war on Germany. May 23, Costa Rica declared war on Germany. May 24, Nicaragua declared war on Germany. PRUSSIANISM ON TRIAL 43 July 12, Haiti delcared war on Germany. July 19, Honduras declared war on Germany. At the end of the fourth year of the war, therefore, public opinion of the world was thus divided: Population Land Area * in Square Miles Central Powers 156,600.000 2,25O,OOO Allies 1,408,000,000 40,526,000 Neutral 165,000,000 7,315,000 Total.. 1.720.600.000 .50.001.000 * In the land area of the neutrals the Polar Regions, embrac- ing about seven million square miles of territory uninhabitable for the most part, has been omitted. The land area of the earth is estimated at 57,691,000 square miles. Condemnation of Prussianism. After 1915 the Cen- tral Powers did not gain a friend among all the nations of the globe. But as the European Allies stood with their backs to the wall, sacrificing men, women, children, and material resources in order that Prussianism might not triumph, over 500,000,000 people from every con- tinent and from every zone voluntarily threw their resources to their aid, and at the close of the fourth year of the war, 1918, a little more than 81 per cent of the peoples of the earth had thus made a firm resolve to break the power of the outlawed nation that embraced only about 9 per cent of the people of the earth, leaving less than 10 per cent of the inhabitants of the globe scattered throughout Central Asia, Central Africa, parts of South America and Central America, and the small neutral nations of Europe that remained out of the war for the sake of their own preservation. Thus before the bar of public opinion the Central Powers were outlawed; and Prussianism, the guiding spirit, was 44 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY tabooed as a thing to be destroyed. And thus it came to pass that Prussianism was first hated of all men, and the hope is that it is now destroyed forever. How the world has changed since 1815! Topics for teachers. Every teacher should seek to understand the nature of this evil spirit, called Prussian- ism, that has caused so much disorder in the world, in order that it shall not insidiously appear in any part of our social life. Why is some concert of the powers of the world neces- sary to preserve the world against wars which as a rule are the result of one people seeking to impose its will upon another people? Will the solemn covenant of the League of Nations, if it is faithfully adhered to by the leading nations, preserve the peace of the world and promote human welfare? Does not the safety of a community depend upon a real or implied covenant of the best people to seek justice and see that the right shall prevail? CHAPTER VI AMERICANISM BEFORE THE BAR OF PUBLIC OPINION Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State! Sail on, O UNION, strong and great! Humanity with all its fears, With all the hopes of future years, Is hanging breathless on thy fate! We know what Master laid thy keel, What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel, Who made each mast, and sail, and rope, What anvils rang, what hammers beat, In what a forge and what a heat Were shaped the anchors of thy hope! Fear not each sudden sound and shock, 'Tis of the wave and not the rock; 'Tis but the flapping of the sail, And not a rent made by the gale! In spite of rock and tempest's roar, In spite of false lights on the shore, Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea! Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee, Our hearts, pur hopes, our prayers, our tears, Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, Are all with thee, are all with thee! LONGFELLOW America's birthday. By July, 1918, as has been said, 8 1 per cent of the people of the world had declared that Prussianism was so destructive of the best in the world and so dangerous to human freedom and human progress that it must be destroyed. At the same time, however, America, once despised by all monarchies, was also stand- ing in the full light of public opinion. It, too, came up voluntarily and spontaneously to judgment. Its tradi- tions were guaranties of its genuine love of justice and fair play, and its more recent acts gave a meaning to its 45 46 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY history that caused all people, except the war lords of the Central Powers and their adherents, to pay homage to its greatness on its natal day an homage greater than that paid to any other country of the world either past or present, for never before have the nations of the earth, both Christian and non-Christian, paid such tributes to one country as they paid to America on July 4, 1918. Americanism, therefore, was praised as universally as Prussianism was denounced. But how did America appear before the world? The occasion was the celebration of its one hundred and forty-second birthday. In England American flags flying everywhere were emblematic of the demonstrations taking place where- ever the English language is spoken. Westminster Hall was thrown open for a great assembly; the bells of St. Paul's rang out greetings to the Stars and Stripes ; special celebrations of Holy Communion were held in honor of the day; and Mr. Lloyd George, the Prime Minister, said: "We join with our whole hearts in your Fourth of July celebrations. Once a bitter memory, we now know that the events to which you dedicate these rejoicings forced the British Empire back to the path of freedom from which in a moment of evil counsel it had departed." The leading statesmen of England were strong in their praise of Americanism. But perhaps the most significant words uttered were those of Mr. Hall Caine, the English novelist, who declared: "The Fourth of July will be a day of freedom from the shadow of the sword which has darkened the sleep of men for more than one thousand years. It will be a day of liberation from the tyranny of the strong, from the enslavement of the weak, from the subjugation of the silent masses that have shed their blood age after age at the feet of the criminals who have AMERICANISM ON TRIAL 47 sought for nothing but their selfish dominion and gained nothing but their guilty glory. It will be the Independ- ence Day of the world." Nor were the provinces of Great Britain unmindful of the day. Canada, New Zealand, Australia and New South Wales, and Southern Africa paid tribute to this nation; and Australian troops fighting by the side of the American boys in France on that day paused in the front- line trenches to mingle their expressions of gratitude with the love of the American soldiers for "the land of the free and the home of the brave." The Union of English-speaking Peoples was organized in London then to emphasize the fact, and has since grown so rapidly that not only in England and the United States, but also in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, it is now in operation with an international maga- zine, The Landmark, of its own. In France the Stars and Stripes waved with the Tri- color. It was the gayest day in France since the beginning of the war. Even in the African provinces of France the Fourth of July was a national holiday. The popula- tions of cities, towns, and villages turned out, and little children marched by the side of American soldiers to show their affection. A reproduction of the Statue of Liberty was set up in Algiers as a mark of esteem for Americanism. President Poincare, in sending greetings to President Wilson, said that the government of the Republic of France had ordained that "the Independence day of the United States shall also be a French holiday," and that "Paris will give your glorious name to one of its handsomest avenues." In Italy and in the Italian provinces of Northern Africa processions of troops, great assemblages of people, and the waving of the Stars and Stripes bore testimony 48 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY of Italy's affection for America and of her gratitude for Americanism. Italian provinces still under the subjec- tion of Austria sent messages to Rome asking America not to forget them. King Victor Emmanuel declared that Americanism was the spirit that was guiding the nations of the earth, and the Fourth of July was declared a national holiday to be "celebrated by all free peoples as if it were their own gladsome holiday, or a rite portend- ing the victory of liberty and justice." Especially significant were the words of Vittorio Orlando, the Premier of Italy, who declared: "The American people were born to liberty, but for them liberty includes justice for themselves and others. That is why, foreign to every instinct of violence and all spirit of presumption, America has devoted all of its inextinguish- able energy to the industrial aims of Peace and to the lofty aspirations of humanity; giving audacious, admir- able proofs of the possibilities of labor." In the one spot of Belgium still free from German control the Stars and Stripes were raised in the presence of the King and all government officials, and there the most abused of all people of Europe thanked the American nation for its services. There, too, little children prayed for the spread of Americanism and for the triumph of right and justice. King Albert, still holding to the small remnant of what a little while ago was a happy and a free people, thanked God for the greatness of the American nation. In Greece rulers as well as people paid homage to the American spirit whose sole aim is "the defense of the imprescribable rights of the oppressed people everywhere." But not alone in Europe did the people pay honor to America on her natal day. In Asia the Mongolian people, whose social standards have ever been different AMERICANISM ON TRIAL 49 from those of the Caucasian, sent messages of good will. China and Siam and the people of India celebrated the day, and Japan through her ambassador declared: "We trust you, we love you, and if you will let us we will walk at your side in loyal good fellowship down all the coming ages." The entire continent of South America, whose aloof- ness heretofore has been a regrettable fact, celebrated the day in an unprecedented manner. In Brazil, Peru, and Uruguay the Fourth of July is a national holiday, and it was observed as fully as their own independence day. Argentina, Chili, and Venezuela celebrated the day with enthusiasm. Mexico, war-worn as she was, was not to be outdone. Elaborate exercises were held in Mexico City. All stores except those operated by Germans were closed. President Carranza sent the most cordial congratulations from the Mexican people and the Mexican government with the wish "that peace and justice will reign soon forever in both continents." In Cuba the Fourth of July is a national holiday, and that young, prosperous nation, which owes its life to America, sent warm greetings through its president, who averred that the day was "now more revered than ever for its significance in the supreme conflict which is to decide the future of liberty and democracy in the world." In America the day was celebrated in an unusual manner. Representatives of more than a score of nation- alities, including Germans who love the Fatherland but hate Prussianism, and have made their homes in the United States, paraded the principal cities, testifying to their loyalty; and in Philadelphia representatives of more than thirty nationalities gathered together in 50 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY Independence Hall and signed a pledge of allegiance to the country of their adoption. Americanism on trial. Thus did Americanism come before the bar of public opinion at the same time that Prussianism was outlawed by 81 per cent of the people of the globe. Democracy has challenged autocracy in every form, in every land, and it has become the adopted creed of the major portion of the peoples of the earth, while autocracy has become anathema wherever right and justice have a voice. How the world has changed since 1776! It is the duty now of every American citizen seriously to ask himself this question: Were the expressions of the nations of the world on July 4, 1918, the result of an excess of enthu- siasm growing out of their gratitude to America, or did they really believe the words that were uttered? Now that the war is over, will the individual and governmental acts be measured favorably by that standard set up for America a year ago? It remains for the school to give the answer. What will that answer be? But what astonished the nations of the world was the rapidity with which a great democracy could mobilize its resources and make ready for war. It had become axiomatic that a democracy is helpless in times of war, that its tendency to argue makes quick and effective action impossible, and that only an autocracy can promptly mobilize and strike at once with the united strength of the whole nation. Prussianism had based its hopes of a great world empire on this supposed truth. But the example of America organizing quickly its entire man power and material resources not only exploded that old theory, but destroyed the last claims of autocracy for supremacy and at the same time added new glories to the virtues of democracy. CHAPTER VII HOW DEMOCRACY MADE ITSELF FIT Cooperation, the Last Word in Democracy Organization is the new word in Democracy. It is Democracy coming of age. In its ebullient youth Democracy was all for indi- vidualism. The souls of men had been so long cramped by old institutions, hampered by caste, restrained by monarchies and aristocracies, that when they broke loose, as in the French Revolu- tion and the early days of the American Republic, they went to extremes But we are getting over that we are realizing that while the first word in Democracy is Liberty, the last word is Cooperation. Cooperation grew, after the American fashion. It was not dictated to us Business men got together and formed trusts. Laboring men got together and formed unions. Churches are looking with brotherly eyes toward each other. At this stage came War. And in a day America burst into adult- hood For the War brought home to us that we must organize or perish; that without unity Democracy is a heap of stones, a helpless mass. And now, as never before in our history, the hearts and minds of all men are fused. Under pressure of the Supreme Danger we are finding Brotherhood. DR. FRANK CRANE, in McClure's Magazine, September, 1918 Democracy finding its soul. It was the nature of Prussianism to be ready for war. It ruled by force. Therefore force was always organized. Other nations of the world which had taken the road that leads to democracy had abandoned force as the law of the world. These nations were exalting right and justice within and employing force only so far as to safeguard right and justice. When Prussianism struck, therefore, democracy had to shift quickly from a peace basis to a war basis. The way in which America was able to pass so quickly from individual liberty to community cooperation and make itself fit to meet a great crisis was a marvel. 52 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY As the soul of an individual is measured by the heights to which the whole man may rise, body and soul cooper- ating, so the soul of a nation is measured by the extent of the cooperation of its entire man power. A democracy, therefore, in making itself fit first had to find its soul. When war was declared, the people generally thought only of a larger army and a powerful navy and ways of reaching the battlefields of Europe. The first acts of the President and Congress were not to start a great army to Europe, but to make the nation a cooperating unit. A state of war was declared to exist on April 6, 1917. On June 5 nearly ten million civilians were drafted into the army and the navy, and within eighteen months two million soldiers were landed in France and two mil- lion more were in training. These simple facts, great as they are, merely hint at the mighty spirit of democracy at work within the nation; and the army in France was but one of the larger mani- festations of its tremendous soul power. A valuable lesson. The teacher, therefore, may derive a valuable lesson from the nation preparing for war. We are learning again what the founders of this common- wealth meant when they declared that one purpose of education is to make every man, regardless of birth or wealth, an acting member of the government. More- over, we are learning anew that the strategic points of the nation are not in its capitals nor its large cities, but in the smaller communities ; that the center of the com- munity is the school; and that the voluntary cooperation of all the communities determines not only the strength of the nation, but the heights to which it may attain. We should not forget, again, that a nation has a soul and that, like individuals, it may save it or lose it. HOW DEMOCRACY MADE ITSELF FIT 53 When the crisis came, many declared that the nation was composed of a group of shopkeepers too selfish to respond to the divine summons, that its society was bound together only by ropes of sand, that it was help- less in the face of such a world disaster, and that the people could only wait for the coming of the infamous and ruthless Prussian to fill his gluttonous maw on the material accumulations of a century. Little did the world know that democracy has a soul, and that, although the first word is individual liberty, the last word is cooperation. It was only necessary, there- fore, to unify its life and make it really sensitive to the great impending evil. Then its strength became the combined strength of all. The world is now conscious of its tremendous power. It is charged with such force that aliens, slackers, traitors, all are overwhelmed by it, and the accomplishment of this nation in such a brief time seems little short of a miracle. But how was the great American spirit brought into play? How did the nation find its soul? How body and soul were unified. Teachers should keep in mind that the one great aim was to organize a large army and build and equip a large fleet to fight both on water and in the air. Observe, therefore, what was necessary to be done in order to make every man, woman, and child in the country an acting member of the government. i. A Council of National Defense with an Advisory Commission was created to protect the home and to bring about industrial preparedness. Railroads, textile indus- tries, financial institutions, sanitation, hygiene, and medical relief, labor, science and research, control of raw material such as copper, coal, iron, and other metals, 54 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY the building of merchant vessels, and even vocational education, came under its jurisdiction or advisement. 2. A Food Control Board was created to cooperate with the federal Department of Agriculture, the state, and the community, to encourage the cultivation of land which heretofore had not been cultivated, to protect and conserve the live stock, to practice economy and check waste, to mobilize labor necessary for the production of food, to utilize the faculties of science of colleges and universities, and to establish departments of home economics in towns, cities, and rural districts. 3. The experts of the country were organized. Phy- sicians, surgeons, and nurses formed hospital units and were in France within three weeks after war was declared to prepare the way for the army. Ten thousand rail- road engineers went to France at once and began con- structing railroads and building military roads and bridges. A National Gas Defense Board was organized, composed of leading pathologists, bacteriologists, and physiologists, to devise apparatus for the detection and neutralization of deadly gases used by the Germans. Laboratories of the country were set to work to devise ways and means of destroying the submarine. Trained men of the country were called upon to give their assistance in improving our industrial enterprises and to throw the emphasis on production rather than on profits. Industrial chemistry secured a new purpose, mineral resources were studied, and the forests were surveyed with a view to conserving the timbers and securing the best material. 4. The women of the country were organized. The Red Cross War Council was created, and women and HOW DEMOCRACY MADE ITSELF FIT 55 girls were formed into units to make supplies for hospitals, to study how to prevent disease, and to stop infection and contagion. Nurses were trained to care for the wounded, and before the first army landed in Europe the Red Cross nurses were already in France. 5. The shipping industry was revolutionized. A Ship- ping Board was created to organize the shipping business of the country, to increase its capacity, to direct its lines, and to control its cargoes. 6. A War Trade Board was created to control American exports, to see that no timber, minerals, food, or clothing material went to Germany, but that those necessities were available only for the American army or our allies. 7. An efficient railroad system was essential to the welfare of the people at home and the support and transportation of the army. The railroads were there- fore taken over by the government and placed at the service of the nation. 8. A National War Labor Board was created. Never has the welfare of this nation or that of the world been so dependent upon the labor of this country. The National War Labor Board was, therefore, created to deal with disputes between labor and capital, to prevent strikes and waste in disputes, to safeguard labor in industrial plants, to provide for the training of unskilled labor, to make broad plans for the utilization of women in indus- trial service, to provide good living conditions for the workers, to keep informed as to the supply of labor in all parts of the country, to promote sound sentiment gener- ally on labor matters, and to provide employment bureaus and develop better management and methods of labor. 9. The religious bodies were organized. Protestants, Catholics, and Jews embracing over forty-two million 56 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY members were drawn closer together by cooperative work in order to conserve the moral and religious welfare of the people, to care for the women in service, to safeguard the babies of dependent parents when the supporters should enter the army, to give the negroes aid and comfort and protection, to aid the government in making the soldiers clean and pure and vigorous men, to help solve the rural life problem and clean up the slums of the cities, to lend encouragement to the Boy Scouts and the Camp Fire Girls, and to assist all patriotic agencies of every com- munity. 10. The National Council of Education was created to study the educational needs of the country, to stabilize the sentiments of the people during the crisis, to encour- age young men and young women not in the army to continue their education so that the supply of educated men and women might not be materially reduced as a result of the war, and to organize educational centers in Europe where soldiers might be trained for specialized work and where the maimed might be taught trades that will make them self-supporting in the future. 11. "Public opinion must be enlightened" was Jeffer- son's doctrine when the nation was founded. It is like- wise the creed of the leaders of the nation to-day. A Committee on Public Information was, therefore, created to give accurate and full information to the people about the causes of the war and the status of the country during the war, to censor war news that might aid the enemy, to secure the services of the historians and the literary men of the nation, to publish bulletins and distribute them, to make use of the moving pictures in presenting phases of the war and the needs of the nation, to send out speakers to address assemblies at theaters, moving- HOW DEMOCRACY MADE ITSELF FIT 57 picture houses, schoolhouses, and other public places, and to utilize every agency possible in keeping the people enlightened. 12. The nation had to secure funds for raising and equipping a great fighting machine. The best experts were put to work to study ways and means of defraying the cost of the war. Even the preliminary efforts of the first few weeks after war was declared, in organizing an army and giving aid to our allies, cost more than the entire Civil War. Huge bond issues running into the billions, and taxation schemes that surpassed anything ever dreamed of before, were worked out. Thus was the great American spirit unified, and the whole body of the nation began to respond to the deep pulsations of the world. Its woes became the nation's woes; its burdens, the nation's burdens; and each section of the country was vying with every other section in its work, not for self, but for humanity. The nation had at last found its soul. This gigantic preparedness might be designated as the first step in getting ready to fight. How much preliminary work is done by teachers, principals, and superintendents before they are ready to teach the child? This is the first great lesson that may be learned from studying the preparedness program of the nation. How the spirit of the soldiers was preserved. There is, however, still another lesson for the teachers of America: How the nation sought to preserve the morale of the soldiers. i. The government enrolled all men between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-one and classified them accord- ing to their fitness for service. It established the Reserve Officers' Training Corps units in different parts of the 58 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY country in which to give special instruction to the men training to be officers. Old military tactics and manceu- vers were no longer adequate. 2. It established training centers for chaplains, and Protestants and Catholics for the first time in history took the same preliminary training for religious and moral leadership. 3. Great cantonments were constructed, and every modern precaution was taken to conserve the health of the soldiers before the men were called to camp. Experts in drainage, pure water supply, and wholesome air went ahead of the workmen. And then the soldiers were called. 4. Following the soldiers were the welfare agencies. Each cantonment was divided into communities. In them the Young Men's Christian Association, the Knights of Columbus, the Jewish Welfare Board, and others provided devotional exercises, lectures, study courses, amusements, assembly places, writing and reading rooms, and wholesome recreation for the men, and under their supervision the Library War Council established libraries for the soldiers. 5. A commission was created to promote outdoor recreation such as games and sports, and athletics became a vital force in the making of a soldier. Training-camp activities were placed under the charge of one man, who organized a vast machine for supplying adequate amuse- ments and regular recreation for the soldiers. Never in history did a government try, as the United States government tried, to make camp conditions and environment such that the men in its army and navy, most of whom came in clean and decent, might lead wholesome lives, as enjoyable as the duties of a soldier HOW DEMOCRACY MADE ITSELF FIT 59 or a sailor would permit, and go home after the war was over clean and decent, morally and physically. 6. Music and community singing were found to be a necessity. Leaders of singing were appointed, and the soldiers were taught to sing with spirit patriotic songs, the old ballads, and great religious hymns. The communities of America at work. Although this nation embraces large areas of territory in different parts of the globe, the communities everywhere responded promptly. Nearly ten million men registered for war service in one day. The food problem was taken in hand, home gardens were cultivated, waste places and abandoned lands were producing food, labor was active; the brains of the country were mobilized; school children in the remote rural districts were working and saving. And the tramp, tramp of a million trained soldiers was an evidence that democracy had met the challenge of autocracy, and that every man, woman, and child was becoming an acting member of the government. "No group of directors, economic or political, can speak for a people. They have neither the point of view nor the knowledge." The people speak for themselves, and the place where public opinion is formed, enlightened, and matured is the community. Not only continental America, but Porto Rico, Hawaii, the Philippines, Alaska, and all other remote sections of the country were cooperating. Never in the history of the nation has such an educational campaign been conducted. Mr. Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior, said that before the end of the first year of the war he visited Hawaii and the Philippine Islands. There he saw, in one schoolroom, children of natives and foreigners, more 60 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY than a score of different nationalities represented, work- ing in Junior Red Cross circles, talking of food conser- vation, and discussing the causes of the war. He said that the school children of those far-away islands could repeat the words of the national songs of America or sing them; that the women had their Red Cross units, and that when a company of their soldiers embarked for France, the natives with the true American spirit gave their sons the same enthusiastic farewells that the Americans in the States gave their boys when they embarked. The American community in France. It is said that when the first advance guard of physicians, nurses, and engineers landed in France to prepare the way for the coming of the American army they were entirely bewildered. Where to begin, what to do, how to make ready, were unanswered questions. They had to find an answer, and that, too, quickly. Millions of soldiers were preparing to cross the ocean, and the command was, Prepare the way! In Northern France the great carnage was weakening the Allies, who were holding on heroically until the Americans could come, and from every source came the command, Prepare the way! This advance guard having the American spirit and the American ideal fell back on the original plan of the American government. They planted themselves at strategic points and began to build American centers, American communities. The plan then began to unfold like a scroll. These centers grew, communities were built, and from them the different army units moved into the firing line. Irving S. Cobb tells a thrilling story of American enterprise in France "how veritable cities have sprung HOW DEMOCRACY MADE ITSELF PIT 61 up where last January the wind whistled over stubble field and snow-laden-pine thickets." And at each impor- tant camp, "each station, each center has its own water system, its own electric light system, its own police force, its own fire department, its own sanitary squad, its own sewers, its own walks and drives and flower beds, its own emergency hospitals and dispensaries and surgeries, its own Y.M.C.A., its own Red Cross unit, generally its own K. of C. workers and its own Salvation Army squad; as likely as not its own newspaper and its own theater. Always it has its own separate communal life." l The soul of a community. At the beginning of the nation the community was pointed out as the strategic part of the new democracy. At the beginning of the war it was the different communities of the nation that were appealed to, to give up men, women, experts, and resources for the preservation of this democracy, and at the beginning of the fighting in France it was the com- munity which formed the basis for all supplies and from which the American army might move into battle. As the nation found its soul by unifying its spirit and setting it to work heroically for humanity to avenge the outraged women and children of Belgium, to check the ruthless vandalism in France, the massacre of helpless Christians in Armenia, the sinking of hospital ships and merchant vessels on the high seas, the destruction of undefended cities, and the unmentionable and irreparable woes inflicted on an unsuspecting world by the con- scienceless Prussian government, so shall the community find its soul by organizing its spirit and setting it to work for humanity, making the community better, instilling a love of law and order in its citizens, raising the moral 1 "The Trail of the Snake," Saturday Evening Post, August 31, 1918. 62 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY level, dispelling ignorance and illiteracy, and providing for the happiness and the well-being of all. Selfishness is often the result of isolation. Lack of cooperation and petty rivalries sound the death knell of any community. The great purpose, therefore, of the school, the heart of the community, is to save its soul and make its heart beat in unison with the heart of the nation and the heart of the world. Topics for discussion. What lessons, therefore, may the teacher derive from the nation's preparing for war? How many agencies that the nation employed can the teacher employ in building a community school? When can it be said that a community has found its soul, or that a school has found its soul? How was the principle "Every citizen an acting member of the government" applied to America's preparing for war? PART II DEMOCRACY IN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS The Spirit of Democracy in the World Never before in history has the task of education been so seriously considered as in the past century under the more complete reali- zation of the meaning of all the revolutionary movements of the modern world. Religious revolution, from the Reformation down to the present, shows clearly that human life is moving on toward an ideal of freedom from the arbitrary dogmas and authorities of the past. Political revolution brings home to men continuously the tact that there is no halting-place short of the life of reason. Industrial changes are demonstrating that old distinctions between the educated and uneducated classes can no longer be maintained along economic lines. And the intellectual revolution is simply gathering up, organizing, generalizing, and applying these great realizations to the ever-widening spheres of living. Education must turn them all to the uses of living and the preparation for more intelligent living. JOSEPH KINMONT HART, Democracy in Education CHAPTER VIII A NATIONAL IDEAL A New Ideal for the School There could be no more cynical conclusion of this war than for those of us who are allies to defeat the German army on the field of battle, to surrender in the process to the ideas that have taken the Germans captive and sent them into this contest. It is as necessary for us to defeat the spirit of might and militarism in our own hearts and in our own land, in our own economic and industrial organiza- tion, as it is to prevent it from conquering on the field of battle. That is the dilemma, that is the difficulty which confronts us. NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER Let us make up our minds right here that unless we can through the schools inculcate and enlarge the concepts of citizenship, not simply will the schools lose their hold on the community, on the ground that they are not doing what they were set up to do, but the nation will lose. ALBERT BUSHNELL HART In the old view, the function of education was to develop the ability, improve the habits, form the character of the individual, so that he might prosper in his life's activities and conform to certain social standards of conduct. The idea emphasized in the citizenship conception is that individual and social welfare, happiness, and righteousness depend more largely than ever before recognized upon the relations existing between persons and classes in institu- tional life. Therefore education has a new work, that of clarifying the basal principles of this relationship and of giving information concerning the very complex relations in society, and a new aim, found in social motive. PAUL MONROE What will be the ideal of the nations? When the revolutions of a century ago came to an end in 1815, it was the ideal of freedom maintained successfully by America that became the "pillar of cloud by day" to lead the nations of the world, through the period of 65 66 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY readjustment in the swift years that followed, to a more democratic form of government. And when the world was passing through the valley of the shadow of death created by the World War, that ideal became a "pillar of fire" to lead a stricken world to victory. But now the war is over, and the peoples of every continent must again readjust themselves to another order, which, in many respects, will be just as new and just as strange as that which followed the revolutions of a century ago. And this new program applies to America as well as to the war-stricken countries of Europe. What ideal will guide humanity through this readjust- ment? Will it be the American ideal, or will the leader- ship pass to one of the nations that has been most sorely afflicted? Can we maintain the standard erected for this nation by the other nations of the world on July 4, 1918? What will be the American ideal? In the Trojan War, the Greeks fought valiantly and victoriously so long as they saw their own gods hovering above them and battling with them. But when they beheld their divinities deserting them and indirectly giving encour- agement to their enemies, then they withdrew to their tents until there could be a reconciliation. The time has come for every nation to seek earnestly for that reconciliation with an ideal that alone can lead the world to paths of peace. Which nation in the years to come will hold aloft that ideal? At the beginning of the World War, a form of autoc- racy, it is said, was growing up in American life that was reaching to the very foundations of our social order and threatening the destruction of the liberties of the American'people. Political freedom has been won. But A NATIONAL IDEAL 67 economic freedom, industrial freedom, and equality of opportunities for all people everywhere must yet be won that the weak may find encouragement and hope and the strong may be released to do and to achieve in order that right and justice may prevail. But the old form of individual liberty is gone forever in organized society. A new freedom preserved through a form of cooperation is already at hand. Then what ideal will America hold up for the guidance of the world? How can the school cooperate? Effect of national ideals on the school. The school is the institution of all civilized governments having as its distinct purpose the preservation of the best tradi- tions of society and the promotion of individual and social progress in the direction of the national ideal. What were the traditions and national ideals of Germany before the war ? Whatever they were, they gave character to the educational institutions which reacted again on the nation. What are the traditions and the national ideals of America? They, too, give character to America's educational institutions which react again on the nation. Democracy is on trial in this country as it is not on trial anywhere else in the world, and during the war the consciousness of this fact caused great captains of industry to close their offices and give their services to the nation with no hope of material reward save that which comes from the energies of a free people. It caused leaders of great labor organizations to counsel labor to lay aside its grievances and give unstintingly, for if America had failed, the rights of capital as well as those of labor would have been destroyed. Women left their accustomed tasks and gave their time and 68 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY energy, both at home and abroad, that freedom might not die and liberty vanish from the earth. But, since the war is over, will the leaders in society fall back into the old ruts that seemed to be grooved by an autocratic hand? It is at this point that a just reconstruction in America must be made. This enthusiasm for the preservation of our democratic institutions is reacting on the school. People are urged everywhere to keep the schools open and to strengthen every part of this system, to breathe anew the spirit into every social institution, and to build up the com- munity around the school. It is now predicted that America will become the seminary in which the nations will find that instruction which will breathe this modern spirit of democracy into the old monarchical nations of the world, and that American colleges and universities will become the edu- cational centers of the world during the period of recon- struction that is to follow. Few will wish to attend the German universities. Those of Belgium have been destroyed. France and England have already begun to reorganize theirs, and, since one result of the war was to make the world safe for democracy, students of government, sociology, poli- tics, and education will seek light in educational insti- tutions that are the product of a democracy. Already representatives from England, France, Italy, and Japan have been in America studying its educational institu- tions with a view to a reorganization of their systems. But what will they find in American education to guide them from year to year? Will the American ideal lead the school to aid in this great reconstruction? What defects exist now that must be cured? A NATIONAL IDEAL 69 The purpose of Part I of this book was to outline the growth of democracy and of autocracy in government from the Declaration of Independence to the outbreak of the World War, and to show how these two methods of control appeared to the world at the end of the war. The verdict of mankind is unmistakable. The methods of autocracy have become so despicable in the sight of such a large percentage of the people of the world that its appearance in any other part of our social life will meet with serious consequences. What is the method of control in our educational institutions? Is it in harmony with the purpose of the school? How far is there inconsistency in theory and practice? Since about 90 per cent of the peoples of the world have decided against autocracy and in favor of democracy, the educational institutions of the greatest democracy in the world should become fit to lead the world's progress in the direction of the world ideal. Task of the teacher. What then is the teacher's task? 1. To make educational administration square by the principles laid down in the Declaration of Independence and the preamble to the Constitution. 2. To build up American communities by making every citizen an acting member of the government and a partner in the energies of the school. 3. To promote the progress and development of all the children of all the people by so directing formal instruction that none shall be neglected. 4. To preserve the best traditions of all races every- where in order that right and justice may be the shib- boleth of mankind and evil may perish from the earth forever. CHAPTER IX AUTOCRACY IN SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION The Autocrat in School A dictator like Diaz of Mexico may run the organization very well for a long time, but he does not develop associates who can take his place when he drops out. When he drops out, the system goes to pieces. The "Great man" theory of sociology is subject to the weakness that it does not provide any method by which the man will train up succeeding great men to take his place. LEONARD P. AYERS Your committee is alarmed by the lack of democracy in the con- duct of pur schools. Our American school system is administered autocratically, the teachers actually on the job in the classrooms having a negligible voice in the determination and carrying out of policies. Self-governing school and district councils of teachers should be established for the purpose of utilizing the experience and initiative of the teaching body in the conduct of the schools and the recommendations of such councils should be made a matter of official record. When consideration is given the effective part played by the Prussian School System in the development of the habit of instinctive, unthinking obedience on the part of the masses of the people, the vital importance to American institutions of breaking away from Prussian methods in our school system is driven home. From Report of Committee on Education of the American Federation of Labor, Buffalo, 1917 Is school administration too autocratic? The charge is made that the administration of public education is too autocratic. This charge is made in the face of the facts that the teacher instructs the pupils in the prin- ciples of democratic government, that America has always fought autocracy and tyranny, and that the world to-day is certainly warring against those very evils. The autocrat in education is a relic perhaps of that period of the nineteenth century when great industrial 70 AUTOCRACY IN SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 71 and commercial institutions were organized along feudal lines and the officials at the head were all-powerful. Then absolute obedience was the highest virtue, and unques- tioning subservience to policies promulgated by irrespon- sible officials the chief mark of loyalty to the institution. Democracy versus autocracy. ' ' Democracy intends the actual release of all the energies of every individual for the enrichment of the personal and social life of all." 1 The purpose, therefore, of democracy, whether in the school, the community, the state, the nation, or in any other social or industrial corporation, should be to set free the energies of the people embraced within that social unit, and not to use these energies for the personal profit or glory of those in authority. The world has just been engaged in a life-and-death struggle between autocracy and democracy. The chal- lenge was flung down by the former. But our hope, our belief, now is that the world will be made safe for democ- racy. The issue is so serious that autocracy everywhere is on the defensive," and if a question is raised against school administration, the education of the children will be retarded until the administration carries out the ideals of the people. The principles laid down in the Declaration of Independence and in the preamble to the Constitution should apply to educational institutions as well as to political institutions. It is easier for a man to sit on his throne and issue commands from the chair to his dependents than it is to enlist the cooperation of every co-worker, call out the initiative of each, and utilize the combined energies of all. It is along this line that the great progress of the world has followed. The autocrat is always in danger of 1 Joseph Kimmont Hart, Democracy in Education. 72 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY a revolution. The sword of Damocles is ever hanging just above his head. It is not the purpose here to discuss the method of selecting the administrator. Every state has provided its own peculiar method of choosing school officers. The great question for each to answer is how the energies of all the people in the organization, or those related to it, are being utilized. The greatest anomaly in our social organization is the existence of two hostile factions in the same insti- tution the rulers and the ruled; the former trying to exact servile obedience from the latter, and the latter trying to break the power of the former. It is found sometimes in the industrial world, and we have strikes and lockouts and loss of energy. It is also found some- times in educational institutions, and boards of education and superintendents selected by them are at variance, each seeking to crush the power of the other. Moreover, superintendents and teachers are sometimes in opposite camps, teachers are dissatisfied and rebellious, the chil- dren are being neglected, and society is suffering. A good community school. What is a good community school ? This is perhaps one of the hardest questions that society has to answer, because its results are spiritual rather than material. It is something that is felt rather than seen in a community. No one has ever drawn up a perfect bill of indictment against a poor school, because its most vital parts cannot be reduced to a formula. On this account a school may continue to decline for years before a revolution breaks out and destroys it completely. One of the best evidences, however, of a good school is the harmony, the partnership of energies, of the admin- istration, the teachers, the pupils, and the citizens of the AUTOCRACY IN SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 73 community. Each of these should be aware of this truth, and it is the great duty of the administration to secure this partnership. If it fails here, the school fails. If a democracy cannot advance beyond the support of the united opinion of mankind, so a community school cannot advance beyond the support of the teachers, the pupils, and the cooperation of the citizens, it matters not how fine the theories are, nor how well the organized leaders of the country support them for the time. Evidence of undemocratic administration in schools. Boards of education have at times tied the hands of super- intendents and sought to impress upon all the lamentable fact that all power was vested in the board. More- over, superintendents have had mistaken notions of their own power, and teachers in both the city schools and the rural schools have in the past had too little voice in making the laws and rules of the schools under which they work. They have been too much like the "hired hands" of the industrial organizations. It is therefore not surprising that they have followed in some instances the example of labor in organizing into unions or bodies of protest in order to force autocratic admin- istrators to listen to reports of abuses which seem to them to be intolerable. This tendency instead of decreas- ing has been increasing, as the records of some of the larger cities and of many counties will show. Poor administrators have impaired the usefulness of more than one school by the following methods of control: The administrative officers prepare outlines and syllabi independently of the teachers and require them to accept them. They command pupils to mark time until they see fit to promote them. They standardize and strain after national uniformity without ever consulting 74 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY the needs of the community or the individual teachers. They use arbitrary methods of classifying competent and incompetent teachers, leaving the way open for favoritism and the invasion of self-seeking persons. They discourage and even prohibit any attempt of the teacher to carry up to the governing board any school policy, and the opinion of one administrator outweighs the combined opinion of the entire teaching force of the school, for too often it is considered a gross breach of etiquette and of sound professional ethics for a teacher or a group of teachers to lay any matter before the board of control. When teachers in sympathy with the new day and with the dream of youth attempt to organize human energies into agencies for righteousness and progress, they are too often confronted with the obstruction of a supervisor or principal who "through sheer fear of what he does not understand through shortsighted vindictive- ness calls upon higher power for aid." The result is that the teacher is generally disciplined for "starting something" in the system. Such a condition makes a good teacher helpless under a martinet parading in the garments of a principal or superintendent. It perpetuates bad management until the school becomes so demoralized that only a revolution in the community can correct the evil. Autocratic control of teachers is just as dangerous to the school as autocratic control of government is danger- ous to the liberties of a people. It is out of harmony with the spirit of the age. Why teachers should study democratic administration. These conditions make it necessary for teachers to make a careful study of democratic administration in order AUTOCRACY IN SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 75 that the initiative and energies of the strong teachers may be used cooperatively and that the weak and timid may not be forgotten in the system. Teachers' meetings, institutes, normal schools, and colleges should devote considerable time to this subject. If the people of a community should be taught lessons in self-government, certainly teachers should be instructed in a subject that virtually concerns them personally. The trouble, however, has been that whenever the head of the school is an autocrat or a martinet, the stronger teachers have been too greatly tempted to follow lines that gave them personal advantage. Not having been instructed in methods of self-government that give the best teamwork, they have tended to become selfish individualists, and when they have been forced to organ- ize, it has been for the purpose of resisting evils that have become intolerable in an autocratic regime. And an organization perfected to voice continually a protest has only a temporary value, for, when one evil has been corrected, the protesting body, having no definite objective, may fall into mischief and become a menace. The forgotten teacher. One of the most pathetic figures in all society is the teacher who has been lost in the system and forgotten, save that he or she fits like a small cog in a vast machine and clicks automatically with the school clock. Her voice is never heard in the councils, her opinion is never asked, and her responses come only in reply to commands. Being subject to the order of the chief, she has been dwarfed into the form of a slave; she may develop all the tendencies of the slave and measure her labor by the rotation of the earth, and her efficiency and sense of responsibility to the com- munity by the size of her pay check. 76 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY Who has not seen the timid teacher with the desire to be a factor, to count for something, to be considered worth while, but with a lack of confidence in her own powers and with a sense of her own un worthiness, enter- ing the system for the first time? She is assigned to a room and then forgotten. The teachers around her, too much interested in their own self-preservation in the autocratic regime, have no time to devote to her. The supervisors come and go and shake their heads. She is even afraid to enter the presence of the superintendent who sits on his awful throne and rules the empire of the school. She is the one solitary, pathetic figure of the educational world. A teacher is made or marred by the spirit of the school and the community. And the administrators should be judged by the same spirit. Many a timid woman who had buried forever, as she thought, her visions in an autocratic system has drifted, after being dropped as a failure, into new environments far removed from the scene of her buried hopes. There, under the spell of freedom and the invigorating stimulus of cooperation, her drooping spirits revived, joy and hope of a paradise regained gave her renewed courage, and "once more she hummed joyously on her way to school, once more she began to dream dreams; and once more she saw little ones under the spell of her teaching, and sympathy come to life." Who has not seen this descent into the inferno? Who has not seen this transformation? A lesson from revolution in business. Educational executives and administrators have much to learn from the changes taking place in the administration of large industrial institutions. A century ago directors and AUTOCRACY IN SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 77 stockholders looked upon large industrial institutions as their private property, to be conducted in any manner that suited the officers and stockholders. However, thoughtful people have reached the conclusion that there are three partners in the business (i) the stock- holders and directors, (2) the laborers, and (3) the public and that the business shall be conducted so as to insure the interests of all three parties. As a result, disputes arising between any two of the parties are no longer left to the warring factions, if the interest of the other party is in any way jeopardized. Hence we find boards of arbitration composed of representatives from the three factions interested whose duties are to safeguard the interests of all. Another way in which the industrial organization is correcting many of its former methods is through the employment manager. Says Mr. Meyer Bloomfield: "For years criticism has been rife of the wasteful coming and going of workers in and out of various shops. But there was little systematic effort from the side of indus- try to deal with this disease of 'labor turn over,' as we have now learned to call it. In the past there was no attempt at a record of reasons why men quit work. But now business is seeking to learn all about this and to correct the evil." 1 Irresponsible "hiring" and "firing" are being abolished. The best brains and personalities are being selected to deal with this problem. Universities like Harvard, Columbia, Pennsylvania, Rochester, and Dartmouth are giving special courses in this work to picked groups of men and women. Mr. Bloomfield concludes: "The basic idea of employment management is, and this applies 1 American Federationist, September, 1918. 78 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY both to public and private enterprises, that the work contract is one of the most precious contracts in a man's life; that only trusted and competent persons can be entrusted with handling the matters which fall within its scope; that the coming and going of workers in any establishment is a sign that something is radically wrong and needs correction; and that executives who will not build an Employment System which satisfies the sense of self-respect and personality in workers will have to give way to those who do." A warning. The teaching profession has not yet attained, in the minds of the people, the prominence that it is to receive if this nation moves forward very greatly. While teaching was a vocation that required little skill or demanded no special fitness on the part of those who engaged in it, people would give little heed to what teachers as a class thought or did. But it is fast becoming a specialized occupation or profession, and just as the artisan and other skilled workers necessary to the life of the world had to organize for protection, so the teacher, as his skill and technical training increase and as the world feels more and more dependent upon his skill for safety, will doubtless follow the old, old path that all skilled workers have followed since the Middle Ages, unless administrators learn a lesson from the revolutions of society. Principals and superintendents and boards of control, therefore, should be able to draw a lesson from the busi- ness world. They may study with profit the trend of society since the industrial revolution, how the great leaders have guided the world, and how the old con- servatives have obstructed progress. Moreover, they may learn of successful administration in business, in AUTOCRACY IN SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 79 religion, in politics, and even in education in order to discern the secret of their success. Every man or woman who has been a successful leader of the people has some- thing of value for school directors to learn what made them great leaders. But we already have fine examples of cooperative administration in our educational institutions which will be discussed in the next chapter. CHAPTER X COOPERATION IN SCHOOL MANAGEMENT Democracy in the School The administration of public education must be made in every possible way to embody, on the one hand, the conservation of democratic control, and, on the other, efficient direction and exe- cution. DAVID SNEDDEN There are two extreme types of school administration; the one mechanical in form and autocratic in process and practice, the other intelligent in form and cooperative in spirit and practice. .... My experience has confirmed me in my confidence in codperative administration. I believe we ought to welcome it; we ought to get together and study methods and means by which we may all profit by the growing desire to work together for the best things. FRANK E. SPAULDING The principal should consider the teacher, (i) as a self -active agent with a will and desires of his own, (2) as an individual working for and with the children in his charge, and (3) as a member of a school carrying out a more or less definite humanitarian aim. He must respect the teacher's individuality and yet guide his self- activity; he must not only allow self-government, but he must also direct it, and in some cases even develop it in the individual who is to be self-governed. He cannot, with efficiency, sit, command, and issue orders; personal vituperation is of little use; gathering examination marks ends in mechanical driving; standing on one's dignity is useless and ridiculous. The principal must cooperate with the teachers, aid them, correct their faults, elevate their aims, and do this without disturbing the delicate web of human contact and sympathy which are so necessary for effective work. He must take them as he finds them. He cannot get rid of them, discharge them, or otherwise replace them. He should not crush initiative out of the teachers and then point to them as inefficient. FELIX ARNOLD, Text Book of School and Class Management How the schools are becoming democratized. One of the most hopeful signs of progress in education is the increasing number of evidences of intelligent leadership 80 COOPERATION IN SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 81 democratic leadership that tends to organize and unify all the agencies of the community. The fact that the trend everywhere is to make the school a community institution is one striking evidence of progress. Another is seen in the growing tendency to reduce the number of the members of school boards to a small working unit, to break up that old clique of committee control, to conduct the affairs of the school in the open, and to keep the people informed of every act of public interest. The selection of small boards by the people, who demand that they shall choose experts who can manage men and direct properly the energies of the school, is a striking evidence of the acceptance of the fact that leaders must be selected for their fitness to lead, and managers for their fitness to manage. How school management is being democratized may best be seen by observation of the example of successful school administrators. The teachers' council. One extreme type of school administration that leads to a mechanical organization and an autocratic process and practice was discussed in the preceding chapter. Successful school men, however, have demonstrated that a cooperative administration will secure better results and give tone and spirit to the system. The demand for such an administration has led superintendents to adopt in one form or another the teachers' council, which is found in modified form in Chicago, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Portland, Minneapolis, Cleveland, and other cities. Superintendent Frank E. Spaulding, of Cleveland, in speaking of the value of the council, says: We have a teachers' educational council, which is a very definite help to the administration. This council consists of twenty-six 82 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY members, representing all parts of the city and all grades of work. Through the council we get the ideas of the teachers. The council considers courses of study or anything that is pertinent to the admin- istration of schools. According to the council's rules the superin- tendent may request the president of the council at any time to call a meeting for the consideration of any subject that he wishes to bring before it; also, on request of any three members of the council, a meeting will be called to consider any matter that these members wish to introduce. But interchange of views between teachers and administration is by no means limited to the teachers' council. Any teacher in the city, anyone connected with the schools, is invited to ask any per- tinent question of the administration over signature, or anony- mously; any question that seems to be of sufficient general interest will be discussed publicly by the superintendent or his associates. Anyone may attend such discussion. The teachers' council hi Los Angeles. Los Angeles has learned how to set free the teachers' energies. A definite plan, for example, has been worked out for creating a council of high-school teachers to aid the superintendent in the management of the high schools of the city. The plan as published in American Educa- tion for 1918 is as follows: 1. The council consists tentatively of the superintendent and seven teachers, one of whom is to be president of the High School Teachers Association, the other six to be teachers named by the president, subject to confirmation by the executive committee. 2. The council meets at stated intervals, to be determined by the council itself. 3. The council may discuss any matter relating to high schools or intermediate schools concerning which the superintendent could properly act or concerning which he could address the Board of Education. 4. Members of the council may take the initiative in introducing subjects for consideration. 5. Any policies of the superintendent or of the Board of Educa- tion may be brought up in the council for criticism so long as the criticism is kept within the proper professional bounds. COOPERATION IN SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 83 6. The members of the council are not to be considered as repre- sentatives of particular schools or groups of teachers, but are to approach all problems from the point of view of their relation to the entire school system. 7. The methods by which the council shall keep in touch with the members of the association shall be worked out by the executive committee of the association cooperating with the members of the council. 8. The superintendent in becoming a member of the council is not to be understood as abrogating any of his authority under the laws of the state and the rules of the Board of Education. 9. The members of the council will consider themselves under obligation to abstain from making public matters discussed in the council involving the character and fitness of individual teachers. 10. The president in appointing members of the council, and the executive committee in confirming them, will consider only the fitness of the persons named to pass upon questions concerning high-school and intermediate school matters in an intelligent and broad-minded professional spirit. Criticism of the council. The superintendent of the Minneapolis schools says that where adverse criticism is given of councils it is along the following lines: Too little interest exhibited by the mass of teachers in instructing their council representatives; a lack of balance in the representation of the various groups, one group, such as elementary schools, hav- ing many more representatives than the high-school group; and too little initiative in the introduction of discussion. These flaws in the council movement can easily be eliminated before organiz- ing by carefully surveying the conditions which exist in a school system. l The idea of a council not new. The idea of the council is not new. Dean Stanley says of Thomas Arnold's management at Rugby: "Every three weeks a council was held, in which all school matters were discussed, and in which every one was free to express his opinion, iSchool Life, July i, 1919. 84 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY or propose any measure not in contradiction to any fundamental principle of the school administration, and in which it would not infrequently happen that he was himself opposed and outvoted." 1 How the Detroit course of study was made. Super- intendent Chadsey, formerly of Detroit, says emphatically that a good course of study must be the product of all teachers: It is, from my point of view, ridiculous to assume that a super- intendent, or a group of superintendents, are in any position what- ever to prepare a course of study for the teachers to work by. Cer- tainly the teachers are in a position to contribute very much more to this course of study than any supervisory officer, no matter how much of an expert he may be in theory, because they are every day working with the course of study and working with the pupils, and can see the limitations in a way that the officer cannot. On the other hand, it is, I think, equally true that your expert official has a certain breadth of view with reference to the course of study, and certain conceptions concerning the fundamental ideas and ideals of the course of study, and the final effect of certain lines of work upon the individual which the grade teacher, the individual teacher, may not have; and there should be a recognition of that in the formation of the course. But there certainly should be a free opportunity for the whole experience of the teacher to come into it. 2 How to construct a course of study. Mr. Leonard P. Ayers, of the Russell Sage Foundation, is even more specific on this subject than Superintendent Chadsey. The value of the cooperation of all the teachers is espe- cially emphasized. One way to construct a course of study is to start in with the teachers and by a long and rather difficult process of study, con- ference, and consultation evolve a course of study. It will take from three to ten times as much work to make the new course with 1 Life of Arnold. 3 The American Teacher, October, 1917. COOPERATION IN SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 85 the cooperation of the teachers as it will to make it at headquarters without them. When the work is all done, the course of study will be about the same as if it were created by the superintendent alone. The difference is that the process of making it has been enormously valuable to the teachers. When the work is done, they have the personal interest in the course of study and feel that it is their own product. They respect it and believe in it. This is the way that teamwork is developed in a school system. The schools may be run efficiently by edict, but the method does not build up a pro- gressive and virile organization. 1 Democratic control in Baltimore County. The success of the Baltimore County system has attracted attention throughout the nation. The administration of Super- intendent A. S. Cook has looked more and more toward giving the teachers a larger share in directing the policies of the system. Every teacher is a member of a group that is planning and executing some kind of work for the benefit of the whole. They not only aid in working out the course of study, but they may even select, under certain limitations, such parts of the course of study as they can teach best. This principle of co6peration is even more important in a county system than in a city system. The different parts of the system are so widely scattered that unless the spirit of cooperation is developed there cannot be an efficient county system. Application of principle of cooperation to reading circles. Teachers may be given wide latitude in selecting the pro- fessional reading courses. If the elective system is good for high-school and college pupils, the same principle should be observed in the arrangement of reading courses for teachers. It is too often the case that a superintendent or a central board outlines with specific directions the 1 Leonard P. Ayers, ibid. 86 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY entire reading course for teachers without giving them any voice in the selection of courses or of books to be read. New and inexperienced teachers are required to study the same courses that old, experienced teachers take, with little regard, sometimes, for their immediate needs. This, of course, is a violation of the modern principle 01 education that permits less mature men and women, even boys and girls, to select subjects that are of greater value to them. It is the personality of the teacher that teaches most, not the best books. The major purpose of all teachers' training courses, therefore, should be to develop person- ality, and one of the greatest factors in building a strong personality is initiative. Hence the superintendent who fails to make all the teachers acting members of the government fails to encourage initiative. In Durham County, North Carolina, the reading course for teachers is divided into four parts: (i) litera- ture, (2) nature or science, (3) history or biography, and (4) strictly professional readings. The teachers, with certain restrictions, are permitted to make their selections one from each group. Primary teachers, for example, may select (i) short stories suitable for oral work, (2) the study of how seeds become plants, (3) the lives of heroes for whom holidays are observed, and (4) how to use them in school. In order that the best results may be secured, teachers are divided into groups of clubs according to the way they select the subjects to be studied. A reading course for teachers' associations should be selected, primarily, not with reference to what the super- intendent or principal thinks should be studied during the year, but with regard to what the teacher feels he or COOPERATION IN SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 87 she needs ; for if the teacher does not derive pleasure from the course, it is very likely that little profit will result therefrom. It is proper, of course, for state authorities to outline reading courses for teachers. It is necessary for principals and superintendents to point to specific weaknesses in the program of instruction and to direct the reading in such a way as to correct such weaknesses. All this can be done and still much freedom be left to the teacher in selecting those courses that will be of greatest pleasure as well as value to her. These practices are evidences of democratic control in school administration. None of these implies that every school question or school policy shall be settled by popular vote. Nor do they imply that the superintendent and principal shall be stripped of all power, but they all imply that the greater the power the greater is the obli- gation to use it for the building up of those human agencies that must cooperate with it toward a desired end. Experiences of successful administrators outside of schools. The experiences of successful administrators in every department of life should be a guide to the rest of mankind. It is not a question as to how much power shall be placed in the hands of an official. We may expect broad powers to be placed in the hands of impor- tant executives, and this is right. But the question about each is, How does he use that power? This nation, during the war, allowed its President to have almost absolute power because there was a great crisis. The people trusted him because of his masterful leadership, and he exhibited extraordinary ingenuity then in bringing into play the energies of all the people in the nation with one aim in view to win the war. Since 88 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY that task has been accomplished, however, he is surren- dering much of his authority to Congress or to the people direct. Millions of men have already returned to their accustomed occupations all better men, let us hope, because they have cooperated in a most sublime cause. No, it is not power concentrated in the hands of a superintendent or a board that is objectionable, but the autocratic method of control. And these defects are found as often in the colleges and universities as in the administration of the elementary and secondary schools. Educational administrators should study the person- ality of great leaders, their methods of control, and how they hold such power over the world. Mr. Charles M. Schwab, for example, the greatest industrial leader, perhaps, that this nation has produced, says: Nobody ever worked for me but many thousands have worked with me. Every man in the employment of the corporation is a real partner. No matter how good a workman a man is, I want his soul in his work. That is the big thing and that is what we must encourage. The way to develop the best that is in a man is by appreciation and encouragement. I consider my ability to arouse enthusiasm among the greatest assets I possess. The example of other great leaders should be studied Christ, Francis of Assisi, Pestalozzi, Thomas Arnold, Washington, Jefferson, Gladstone, Lincoln, Phillips Brooks, Robert E. Lee, and the successful leaders of the people of to-day. Women should study especially the great women who have been conspicuous as leaders of the people. What made them great leaders? Does a great woman leader possess in the main the same qualities that a great man leader possesses? CHAPTER XI THE SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY IN STUDENT MANAGEMENT Autocracy in Class Management It is remarkable that in a democratic government .... where the citizens are self-governed, the government of the schools of those same citizens is now and always has been autocratic; that is, the children, who are said to be under training for future citizenship and self-government, are for ten or fifteen years held in subjection by an autocrat whose highest qualification is to "hold the class," and who has never discovered how much more important it is for the purpose of a self-governed people that the class should hold itself, has never found out how it may be done, and so has no plan whatever for operating self-government. This attempt, if any discernible attempt has been made, to teach self-government by contraries has always been a failure. It is high time to aim toward our mark. HENRY LINCOLN CLAPP, Master Emeritus, George Putnam School, Boston The school in which the pupils are as "dumb, driven cattle," doing what they are told, when they are told, and the school in which the pupils do what they please, as they please, when they please, represent the extremes of tyranny and license, and in neither type is there adequate opportunity for the development of the social virtues. Through the organization and discipline of a school much can be done to afford practice in effective social work without having scholarship at a low ebb, or responsibility and obedience lost sight of. LID A B. EARHART Two extremes of student control. The greatest lesson an individual learns is that of self-government. The home begins the instruction, the school continues it through the period of childhood, and then the state, through its law, public officials, and social institutions, seeks to mature it. But it is an endless process. Those who think that a child in the public school is capable 89 90 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY of complete self-government and that the regulation of its conduct and that of its associates may be turned over absolutely to a group of undeveloped students possess more zeal than judgment. Moreover, those who place their faith in the old auto- cratic type of schoolmaster, whose chief duty is to rule and who boasts of the hundreds he has conquered even as the savage boasts of the number of scalps hanging at his belt, are encouraging the reign of autocracy in the world and the continuance of Prussianism in school management. Neither democracy nor autocracy is taught as effectively by precept as by example. These two extremes of control are in evidence in America to-day. The first is usually a fad and passes in the same way as other social fads disappear. The other is a menace to good government and a hindrance to the right education of the youth. This latter type we find too often in the schoolroom. "It is necessary," says Thomas Mott Osborne in dis- cussing prison reform, "every once in a while for us to have what might be called a spiritual house-cleaning; and it is particularly necessary at times like the present times that try men's souls to see how far they meet the conditions of the present day; to recast our systems and our methods, so that the evil that men are doing may be eradicated, so far as it is possible for us as indi- viduals to help." Student management inconsistent in theory and in practice. We have held it as a principle in education that the most effective teaching is by example, that the child learns most, not from memorizing precepts, but by doing. Moreover, we teach that a democracy expressing itself either directly or through its representatives is the DEMOCRACY IN STUDENT MANAGEMENT 91 best form of government. But in student management the pupils are too often treated as so many dependent subjects, and not a voice is raised or a suggestion offered or an opinion expressed by them in regard to their own welfare except as a protest against the autocracy of the teacher. It is frequently the case that a dictatorial manner is only a cloak for ignorance, and an incompetent teacher can command silence or issue new orders when in doubt as to what to do. As the best rulers in the political world are those who can set free the greatest energies of the most people, so the best teachers are those who can provide the most liberty for the greatest free play of the energies of children in the schoolroom. A lesson from prison reforms. It is because imperial- ism, feudalism, aristocracy, and paternalism have all been tried in government and have failed that the world has come to democracy. For this reason it is necessary for schools to train for self-reliance and self-government. The youth of America must be trained for freedom by being made able to utilize freedom. "It is liberty alone that fits men for liberty," says Gladstone. The teacher has something to learn from reforms in prison management. Thomas Mott Osborne says of the introduction of a democratic spirit in prison man- agement : We started in Auburn prison a wonderful experiment to see whether we could put democracy into a prison. We have tried everything else. We gave to the Auburn prisoners, four years ago what? Nothing but a slight modicum of individual liberty. We said, "Within this room you may act like human beings"; and the men came to chapel every Sunday at Auburn and there were no longer guards around the room to see that no man turned his head. The fourteen hundred prisoners were under their own man- 93 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY agement. They were all responsible for the conduct of the men, and if any one went wrong, then the community, under its properly authorized representatives, dealt with the offender; and just that one thing lifted those men from the ranks of convicts convicted felons back into the realm of humanity Later, of course, the afternoon at the chapel expanded to after- noons daily in the open air, in the sunshine of the prison yard; and that expanded into an honor camp, with twenty prisoners, one of them a man having a term of his natural life, who could never leave prison unless pardoned; another with seventeen years still to do; another with fifteen, and so on down. Twenty of these men were in camp for three months, with opportunity to run away and escape any hour of the day, and yet not one took advantage of it. One of the longest term men was entrusted with money which could have taken him to Canada, but he turned his back resolutely upon the temptation and came back to prison, where he still has many years to serve seventeen years that man had. Thus we found a new life coming into the prison, a sense of responsibility where there had been none; a power of self-government that nobody could have imagined existed in these men whose daily life had been a protest against restraint. 1 This method of democratic management was put into effect with the boys in the naval prison at Portsmouth, and similar results were obtained there among the young lads who were imprisoned chiefly for deserting, or over- staying their time, or for infractions of navy regulations. There is a tremendous lesson in this story for every teacher of America, for the "blessed principle of democ- racy" will work also in the management of pupils. The spirit of democracy in the classroom. One of the first signs of democracy's entering the classroom was the appearance of the elective system in our high schools and colleges. The supervisors of education in Germany could not understand this feature of the American schools. They hooted at the idea that high-school youths can make 1 Education, June, 1918. DEMOCRACY IN STUDENT MANAGEMENT 93 any intelligent selection of studies. Autocracy has always been unable to comprehend the power of democ- racy, and even autocratic schoolmasters to-day are not in sympathy with the elective system, nor with the democratic tendencies in school management. Democracy in school management, however, does not mean turning over the school to a crowd of wild, undis- ciplined, and untrained youths. But it does mean that those who are being taught shall give something besides unqualified obedience to the school, and that they shall be led to see that the responsibility of making the school and the community rests upon them as well as upon the teachers and patrons. The principle of the "consent of the governed" may even apply to pupil management. Stages in the growth of student self-government. Self-government comes by slow stages. It is a subjective development, not something imposed from without, and the school, in its growth, usually passes through three stages before students and teachers reach that high plane on which the students may meet the teacher as partners in the conduct of the school before the governed and the governors are one. Three phases especially of cooperation in student management for teachers to study are: 1. Cooperation in the selection of courses, in the conduct of the recitation, in the care of buildings and grounds, and in the promotion of pupils. 2. Cooperation of teacher and pupils outside the class- room in such a way as to promote intellectual, industrial, and social development through clubs or societies. 3. The organization of the entire school into a govern- ment representing all classes of students cooperating with 94 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY the teachers, in which the students acting as citizens of the government take an active part in making and regu- lating school policies and in preserving law and order in the school community. All teachers may enter at once the first stage ; a majority of the teachers, perhaps, have developed sufficiently to reach the second stage. But few, comparatively speak- ing, have the experience or have prepared the community for this third stage. However, it is a goal toward which the school should move, and in modified forms it may be obtained by all good administrators. Fine theories of child management according to stages of growth are spun, sometimes, when teachers make a formal study of the child. But when the time comes for the teacher to act, there seems to be a great dread lest the child at the first opportunity will "beat" the teacher, that it will avoid the difficult tasks and select the easy ones; and as a result the old implied contract between master and slave is entered into. These stages will be treated in detail in the next chapter. CHAPTER XII COOPERATION IN STUDENT MANAGEMENT Value of Cooperation in Government of Children If we train our children to take orders, to do things because they are told to, and fail to give them confidence to think and act for themselves, we are putting an almost insurmountable obstacle in the way of overcoming the present defects of our system and of establishing the truth of democratic ideals. JOHN DEWEY The extent to which pupils may participate in school government with benefit to themselves and to the school will vary with the nature of the school and, it may also be said, with the nature of the principal. Some principals, in order to conduct a school on such a plan, would have to be made over because of their predis- position to exercise control, or because of the habit of absolute rule formed by years of experience. Wisdom, patience, tact, all are necessary in undertaking and carrying out the plan of giving the pupils a share in the school discipline and management. LID A B. EARHART In this school there are twenty clubs, including current events, social service, dramatic, camera, student-welfare, lend-a-hand, besides those devoted to the various subjects of study. All these various activities, from the quelling of the disorder in the study rooms in the first school to the democratic clubs last mentioned, have been carried on by pupils often in response to faculty sug- gestions, to be sure, but always with a rich result. Illustrations might be indefinitely multiplied from the best schools in the coun- try. It is notable that wherever these activities are strong the problem of discipline practically disappears. The pity is that such activities are not generally recognized for their direct value for training in citizenship, and encouraged as an essential part of school life- WILLIAM D. LEWIS, Democracy's High-School In school centers, in college settlements, in civic settlements, the time arises when groups of boys and girls or young men and women seem to feel that an organization or league may be formed in which they may further their growing ideals of citizenship. In the public schools such leagues have a larger field for activity than anywhere else. The teacher may set forth not only the need of the organization, but the method of forming such a league, and the work that may be accomplished. MABEL HILL, The Teaching of Civics 95 96 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY The first phase of self-government. In both classroom instruction and extra-classroom activities this principle should always be kept in view that the aim of student management is to produce self-governing and self-reliant citizens. Students, therefore, must be taught to have respect for authority, for this is the beginning of wisdom. But how far students shall be permitted to participate in making the laws under which they are to be governed, or in executing the laws which they are taught to obey, is a vital question. It is not so much what students take from school, but what they put into it, that determines their development. This fact has been too often overlooked. The number of students expelled or otherwise punished is an evidence of one kind of development taking place, and the cooperation of students and teacher in the building of a fine community center is an evidence of quite another kind of development. What cooperation do students bring to the school? How often do they suggest ways and means for improving it, or do they more readily plan to obstruct its work? What part do they have in planning and conducting a recitation, or are they expected to reproduce only what the teacher has assigned them to memorize? What concrete material is brought from the home or the com- munity to be used in the classroom, or does the teacher see no value hi those things? How often are papers, magazines, books, pictures, and other material volun- tarily brought to the school, or does the teacher use only the subject of the textbook? Are pupils taught to correct their own mistakes in spelling, arithmetic, composition, etc., or does the teacher correct all mistakes for the pupils? Are the pupils helpful in keeping the room, the building, and the grounds healthful and attractive, or do COOPERATION IN STUDENT MANAGEMENT 97 they bid defiance to the authority of the school and seek to bring contempt upon it by committing deeds of violence that bring shame to the school and the community? Autocratic management always divides pupils into two distinct classes: the governors and the governed. But wherever the spirit of democracy is at work, the tendency is to bring about cooperation between the two and in reality to make them one. The following illustrations of the spirit of democracy at work in this first stage are given: 1. Classroom cooperation. Student government is begun when pupils and teachers cooperate in the class- room in keeping the room neat and clean, in preserving order, and in conducting the recitation. The election of class officers to report absences and tardiness, to take charge of the classes when the teachers are summoned from the room, to conduct the classes through the corridors, and at the dismissal to marshal the lines out of the building; and the use of monitors to take charge of yards and corridors, to look after the condition of the building, and to take care of the pupils' wraps and hats, are two suggestions as to what can be done in this direction. If these school and class officers be elected by the pupils, the effect upon both the school and the officers thus chosen is often better than when some one in authority appoints the pupils to perform these functions. The idea of choosing those whom they know to be most worthy and most capable, and then of rendering prompt obedience to the officers of their own choosing, can be instilled through conferences with the pupils or in talks by teacher or prin- cipal when the proper occasion offers. 1 2 . In the conduct of the recitation. The writer witnessed a history lesson conducted by a fifth grade in one of the New York City schools. The teacher seemed to be only a spectator in the room. That was one sign of her great- ness as a teacher. 1 Lida B. Earhart, Types of Teaching. 98 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY At the appointed time a leader from among the pupils arose and, with an outline of the lesson in hand, stated the subject of the lesson and the points for discussion. One student after another was called up, opinion after opinion was volunteered by the pupils. The teacher was appealed to for a decision or a verification another evi- dence of the confidence of the class in her. The period was filled with an interesting discussion of the subject. Order, dignity, and self-control were manifest every- where. The real spirit of democracy was at work. The teacher's fine leadership, though hidden, made itself felt. One of the public schools of Indianapolis has this same spirit. "In almost all the grades in the school the pupils were conducting the recitations themselves wherever there was an opportunity." Moreover, the schools of Chicago seek "to introduce into the curriculum material which the children themselves can handle and from which they may get their own lessons." 1 Dewey's Schools of Tomorrow contains a number of examples of the spirit of democracy at work in the school. The Fairhope experiment in Alabama has won consid- erable recognition because of the freedom of the pupils in selecting their studies and in conducting the recita- tions. The elementary schools of the University of Mis- souri also are widely known for the same reasons. Madame Montessori and other great teachers whose experiments have attracted much attention in America base their work on the principle "that liberty is necessary in the classroom if the teacher is to know the needs and capabilities of each pupil, if the child is to receive in school a well-rounded training making for the best development of his mind, character, and physique." 2 1 Dewey, Schools of Tomorrow. 2 Ibid. COOPERATION IN STUDENT MANAGEMENT 99 3. In the capacity for friendship. The first essential of good leadership is capacity for friendship. "I merely point out that to you that, as a matter of fact, certain persons do exist with an enormous capacity for friendship and for taking delight in other people's lives; and that such persons know more of truth than if their hearts were not so big." 1 It is doubtful whether a teacher can be a great leader without this capacity. The following story illustrates the point : Two famous teachers of America were introduced at an educational convention a number of years ago. They were referred to as Bill, the pupil, and Henry, "a mere stripling" of a teacher of a rural school in Missouri. In the speech of introduction this incident was related : Bill was the leader of a gang of boys that had turned the previous teachers out. When the "mere stripling" entered the neighborhood a week before school was to start, he learned this and other facts of importance. His first act, therefore, was to know the leaders and to become acquainted with Bill. He went hunting with him, rode in the same wagon with him, and before the end of the week they had become fast friends. Monday morning came. The boys assembled early, and the "mere stripling" of a teacher heard Bill issuing orders to the gang: "Nobody 's going to interfere with the new teacher. I 've got acquainted with him and he 's the right kind. He's square; he'll be fair. I'm his friend, and anybody that puts up trouble for him has got me to lick. See?" Bill was introduced as "the Honorable William T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Education," and 1 William James, What Makes a Life Significant. ioo EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY Henry, the stripling teacher, as "the Honorable Henry Sabin, state superintendent of public instruction of Iowa." 1 4. In the use of devices in the schoolroom. Educational journals have as a rule one or more columns devoted to methods and devices in the schoolroom, such as the use of the sand tray, a grocery store in the teaching of arithme- tic, taking field trips in the study of geography and his- tory, making up problems in arithmetic, spelling-games, dramatizing the reading lesson, how to use the current periodicals, and material drawn from the community. The purpose is to arouse interest by supplying a new motive. But what is the principle underlying motive and interest ? It is relief from the old mechanical routine and autocratic methods and the infusion of some of the modern spirit of democracy into the conduct of the reci- tation and into the management of students. The device is a temporary thing and will lose interest after a while. Therefore it in itself has little permanent value. But the principle still stands. A new way of approaching the problem must be found. New sources of energy must be tapped. The ingenuity of the teacher in varying the classroom work so as to appeal to as wide a range of interests as possible is sure to set free just so much energy that may be used in the child's development and in making the school serve the community. 5. In providing for the progress or promotion of pupils. Another evidence of the spirit of democracy in the man- agement of pupils may be found in the provisions for the progress or promotion of the individual students. A good school will not classify a twelve- or fifteen-year-old pupil with the first- or second-grade students even if he or she cannot read and write. Some schools have an ungraded 1 George Herbert Betts and Otis E. Hall, Better Rural Schools. COOPERATION IN STUDENT MANAGEMENT 101 room for such pupils and for other misfits. When this is not the case, such a pupil is assigned to a teacher who has pupils nearer his age and he is assigned to special work. So much has been written on the question of student progress or promotion that little needs to be said here. But any teacher who holds all degrees of intellects to the same pace, although they may be grouped together in the same grade, is an enemy to childhood. Moreover, the teacher who holds a pupil back in one or two subjects because such a student failed in the remaining subjects of the grade is also an enemy to childhood. Any act of the teacher or of the administration that checks the spontaneity of the child or diverts it into improper channels is fundamentally harmful because it does violence to the laws of growth and development. The school cannot become what it should be until the promotion or progress of individuals is so arranged that the greatest energy of the pupils is released. Ex-President Charles W. Eliot has well said: The schools will never do this work which democracy needs from them until the backward and defective pupils are segregated, the mass of the pupils enabled to pass rapidly from section to section or class to class in the course of the year, and the superior pupils put into a division by themselves, in order that they may make rapid progress in proportion to their abilities The Ameri- can School will never serve its true democratic purpose until it gets rid of marking time by the superior pupils in order to keep them in close association with inferior pupils. The second phase of self-government. The second phase of self-government includes the cooperation of teacher and pupils outside the classroom in such a way as to promote the physical, social, intellectual, and indus- trial development of the youth or members of the com- munity. This is attained through clubs or societies or LIBRARY STAT? TEACHER'S C L' * 102 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY other organizations in which pupils and teachers are working toward a common end. It is not alone in the classrooms that children are being educated. And teachers in the past have taken too little part in the outside activities of the pupils. In fact, the tendency has rather been in many instances to discourage student organizations or to tolerate them as a necessary evil. In some institutions even athletics is either ignored by the school authorities or handled entirely by the faculty, or so dominated by it that nothing is left for students to do save recite from books and go home at the end of the session. The following examples of the spirit of democracy at work in this stage have been observed: 1. Self-governing bodies. Self-government, as has been said, is the greatest lesson that a student can learn, and this cannot be learned well and practiced wisely unless students are given practice in a wholesome kind of self- government. They should have first-hand knowledge of the work of governing bodies and the responsibility of the individual to the government. The first athletic club, for example, will be little more than a mob of discordant voices at first. But when it is organized along parliamentary lines, order begins to appear and students at the same time are taking their first lesson in democratic government. When students learn how to conduct an orderly club they are reaching a point at which they can enter more fully into a large part of the government of the school. Athletic clubs, literary societies, glee clubs, school-betterment clubs, all afford opportunities for cooperation and self-government. 2. Five forms of student activities in the Lincoln School. One of the best illustrations of student activities is given COOPERATION IN STUDENT MANAGEMENT 103 by Otis W. Caldwell 1 in a discussion of the plan of the Lincoln School for instructing pupils in habits of self- government. First, there is a school assembly at which frequent lectures are given by adults on matters of current note. Pupils present matters of popular interest worthy of atten- tion, and freedom of discussion is allowed. This is consid- ered one of the most important activities of the school. Secondly, a student council is formed, consisting of high-school and upper grammar-grade pupils and teachers. Any matter pertaining to the school may be presented to the council upon the initiative of any person or class. The council considers the question and, if it deems it wise, presents it to the entire school for consideration. Thirdly, the town meeting, modeled somewhat after the New England town meeting, is called from time to time. Then the entire school meets to discuss school policies, and the discussion is entirely free. Fourthly, a school bank is organized under the direction of the department of mathematics. Thrift stamps, war saving stamps, and liberty bonds are bought. Deposits are made and students are given practical lessons in economy and business methods of savings banks. Fifthly, another very important organization in which the students take part is the Employment Committee, which aids pupils in finding ways of earning small sums to help meet their expenses. In addition to giving pupils a part in the larger life of the school, the purpose is to work over accepted subjects, such as history, English, mathematics, science, and civics, and to introduce any new subject which may give worthy results in the development of citizenship. 1 Education, May, 1918. !04 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY 3. Widening the scope of student activities. It should be the purpose of a community school to widen student activities just as far as possible. The tendency has too often been to narrow the scope just as far as the admin- istration dared without producing a revolution. As a result, pupils free from the tyranny of the classroom organize athletics and fraternities outside the schools. The instinct for organization and cooperation is too strong even for teachers and parents to overcome it. As a result, where students are left to do as their impulses direct, it is not unnatural that their want of a standard and their lack of training in group work leave the way open to dishonest methods and the ward type of politicians in a struggle for leadership and victory. Moreover, cliques and clans make a sham of democracy in school. The spirit of insubordination appears, the school is torn with dissensions, parents lose confidence, and a revolution is brewing. The student council, referred to above, is tried in a number of institutions. It makes little difference by what name it is called, just so the students are given an opportunity to express themselves and to feel that they are factors in making the organization. They should meet often in a formal assembly of some kind. It may be in an athletic club, a literary club, a farm-life club, a street improvement club, etc. The impulse of the pupils and the needs of the community may determine the nature of the organization. They should study parliamentary law by practicing it, and their views and votes should count for as much as the teacher's. Such exercises teach self-control, dignity, justice, and straightforwardness of speech, and help to banish bashfulness, diffidence, and self-consciousness. COOPERATION IN STUDENT MANAGEMENT 105 The bad boy, the bully of the school, may in this manner be transformed into a good, law-enforcing citizen. His vast energies may be turned to good account. When teacher and pupils are divided into two hostile camps, no wonder students consider it an act of disloyalty to the gang for one of their members to inform against them. The third phase of self-government. A few teachers have been able to work out a form of government in which the administration of pupils is placed in the hands of the pupils themselves. There have been many fail- ures at this point because pupils have not been prepared for self-government and because teachers as a rule are not qualified to direct it. Wherever student self-govern- ment is mentioned, teachers, as a rule, think of this phase of it, and the ambitious ones or the faddists make a display of their attempts to turn over to the students the entire government of the school. But whenever such experiments have been successful, the leadership and authority of the teachers have .only been concealed, not withdrawn. 1. The George Junior Republic. One of the best illustrations of this form of student self-government is the George Junior Republic. The current magazines have from time to time described this unique institution, and teachers would do well to make a study of it. This is a colony of boys organized into a republic in which the executive, the legislative, and the judicial departments are apparently in the hands of the boys. One proof of its genuineness is the fact that it has been conducted successfully for a number of years. 2. Dangers to be avoided. There is one warning to be given, however. A large group of pupils that have not been in the habit of participating in any form of 8 106 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY government cannot suddenly be turned into self-govern- ing bodies. Teachers have failed just at this point. It should be remembered that the federal government undertook to convert the newly liberated slaves of the South into governing assemblies, and the result was a tragic failure. The negroes were not prepared for self- government. Teachers and superintendents who have been success- ful urge strongly that at first only small portions of the student body be organized. Self-government is a slow growth. The upper classes should be organized first. They may make their beginning in self-government by forming clubs for collecting objects of natural history or materials for studying a special subject. Literary societies, debating or declamation clubs, musical clubs, athletic clubs, thrift-stamp clubs, school-garden clubs, corn clubs, tomato clubs, class organizations, school council, school assembly, or clubs by other names with special purposes may be organized. Advancing step by step, the school may reach the point at which teacher and pupils are a working unit, and the question of discipline will be solved. This is the first step in teaching American citizenship in the school. Every teacher should come to hold this view of the matter. It requires more skill, more sympathy and patience, and more character to be a great leader in a democracy than in an autocracy. Anybody can com- mand. It requires none of the virtues to issue edicts. But it requires all of them to win the friendship of the group and to enlist the energies of all in one partnership and make of them a working unit for the benefit of all. The partners of a school. We have seen that in the administration of business there are three parties vitally COOPERATION IN STUDENT MANAGEMENT 107 concerned: (i) the public, (2) the managers and stock- holders, and (3) the laborers, and the interest of all three must be protected if harmony is to prevail in the industrial world. The partners of a free public school are four: (i) the public, (2) the boards of control, (3) the supervisors and teachers, and (4) the children. We have discussed the spirit of cooperation at work in the administration and in the work of teachers and pupils. In the following chapters, therefore, the cooperation of the public will be treated. CHAPTER XIII COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP IN A DEMOCRACY The Leader in the Community During the past few years we have heard much of what is called the "social center," or the "community center," in rural districts. This idea has grown with the spread of the consolidation of schools, and means, as the name implies, a unifying, coordinating, organ- izing agency of some kind in the midst of the community, to bring about a harmony and solidity of all the interests there represented. It implies of course a leader; for what is left to be done by people in general is likely to be done poorly There is no more appropriate person to bring about this organi- zation, this unification, this increased solidarity, than the public school teacher of the community; but it will require the head and the hand of a real master to lead a community to organize it, to unite it, and to keep it united. It. requires a person of rare strength and tact, a person who has a clear head and a large heart, and who is "up and doing" all the time. A good second to such a person would be the minister of the neighborhood, provided he has breadth of view and a kindly and tolerant spirit. Much of the success of rural life in foreign countries, notably in Denmark, is due to the combined efforts of the schoolmaster and the minister of the com- munity church. JOSEPH KENNEDY, Rural Life and the Rural School The school that built a town. Mr. Walter H. Page, late American ambassador to Great Britain, published sixteen years ago a little volume of essays entitled, The Rebuilding of Old Commonwealths. One of the essays is "The School That Built a Town." This village or town at first carried the school as a sort of necessary burden. It was a nondescript, lifeless institution exist- ing merely because it was a habit of the people to support a public school. It was a fixture in the calender very much the same as hot weather, Christmas, the moon's phases, equinoxes, etc. However, it had little influence 1 08 LEADERSHIP IN A DEMOCRACY 109 on the people individually or collectively except to serve as a salve to their consciences when the glories of our public-school system were praised at Fourth of July celebrations, or when the ministers spoke of their duties to the poor. The people were stratified into castes. Cooperation was unthinkable, and each special class desired its special school. One day, however, the town accidentally secured the services of a real teacher an uncommonly energetic man "who knew how to manage men." He studied the population and convinced the people that they had not been in earnest about education. "They are simply playing with it and are fooling themselves," he said, and began immediately to prepare the way for a real school. His first point of attack was the community to convince the citizens, to organize them, and to lead them. The need of democratic leadership. Teachers would do well to read this essay. It has one great lesson; namely, the teacher or principal who cannot lead the people of a community, who does not possess the demo- cratic spirit sufficiently to arouse the desire for a better community, who cannot draw the citizens to the support of the school, will soon be lost in the system, and the community will be left to break up at will into social castes or sectarian circles. Every community needs an educational leader, not a dictator. It needs a manager of men and women, and as large businesses are trying to solve the same problem through employment managers, so boards of education should seek to find superintendents who possess similar qualifications. If the President of the United States and the Congress had attempted to put an army into Europe without first no EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY organizing the whole nation around it, they would have failed utterly. The best leaders of the country were called upon in the organizing of the nation, and teachers should never forget this lesson. Many schools have failed because principals and teachers did not possess the first elements of community leadership. One evidence of poor leadership. The first evidence, perhaps, of a lack of good leadership is the unwillingness of the people to be led or directed by the educational administrators. If the people as a whole do not always know what is best for society, they do know when they do not desire to be led by certain leaders, and this is true whether the leader is elected by them or appointed by some centralized body. An officer elected by popular vote may become a miniature Kaiser, and one appointed by a board may become a wise leader of the people. Democratic leadership is not always determined by the mode of selection, but as a rule the real democratic spirit is increased or diminished just as the leader is responsible to the people directly or through a board held responsible for his success. Every year we may read of revolutions in educational circles. They are found in the administration of both city schools and rural schools. Where the people of a community are in revolt against the superintendent or school board, the bill of indictment usually shows that the administration has been too autocratic and has not considered the wishes of the people. Legislative bodies are appealed to to change the methods of selecting the administrators. If they are elected by the people, a change is desired; if they are appointed by some central authority, that is thought to be the cause of the trouble. The people do not know which is the best method. But LEADERSHIP IN A DEMOCRACY in they do know that a particular administration is bad. "It is rotten," they say, and they desire a change. Teachers must know people. The success of a school depends upon the ability of the administration to bring into play as much of the energies of the community as possible and to draw to the school the support and cooperation of as many patrons as possible. Wherever such administration is found, there is educational prog- ress; and wherever it is lacking, there is found discontent, the seeds of a revolution. Much of the dissatisfaction is due to a lack of sufficient knowledge of what the teachers are doing or trying to do. Teachers as a general thing do not visit or talk with enough people. A leader must take the people into his confidence and let them day by day follow his plans, step by step. He should make known his motives, his hopes, and his ideals. A poor teacher of children who is thoughtful enough to let the people know what he or she is trying to do may be a great success in a community for a while, and the best teacher possible may fail to build up a school because he follows only the path from his home to the school. We have had a great deal to say recently about the need for children to study community civics, but too little about the need for teachers and superintendents to study the community in order to become better citizens, to say nothing of better leaders and directors of com- munity activities. Our normal schools and colleges have neglected this subject, and as a result the teachers have not measured up to their responsibilities. A question such as the following might be asked by the teacher : "If every other citizen in the community had the same attitude toward the community that I have, 112 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY what kind of a community should we have?" or "What does my community need that it does not have?" The school and community politics. It has become a habit to deplore any mention of politics in connection with the school. "Keep politics out of the school!" As though the greatest evil in our educational jungle were that monster, politics ! Now the suspicion is grow- ing that wherever wholesome politics is banished from the school, autocratic control of education is in the ascend- ency and the individuals of the community are ceasing to be acting members in the government. We need to have as many people as possible in a community taking an interest in the school in order that the political atmos- phere may be as wholesome as possible. Wherever bad men rule, it is because bad men are more active than good men and not because there is more evil than good in the world. Therefore the one great subject for teachers as well as superintendents to study is the community the whole community at work, at play, at its devotions; what are the forces for good and evil, what are the sources of joy of the young and the old; and how the best agencies of a community can be organized, directed, and used in the building of a community school. Politics of the right sort should be brought to the aid of the school. It is the only way to counterbalance the evil in politics. We shall always have in a democracy some kind of politics in every social organization, and the question for the teachers to answer is, What sort? Nor can this question ever be answered without a knowledge of the community. Influence of educators in legislative bodies. We are prone to bewail the fact that the opinion of educators LEADERSHIP IN A DEMOCRACY 113 has little weight in our legislative assemblies. This has been too true in the past. But this is due rather to the fact that teachers and school administrators as a rule have known so little of the temper of the people that the lawmakers, who are experienced politicians, are afraid to follow them. "The people won't stand for it," they say, and the educators are unable to answer them, for they do not know what the people will stand for. The states have no more important enterprises than their educational undertakings, and the voice of the edu- cators should be a factor in our legislative assemblies, not only for improving educational facilities, but for improv- ing civic righteousness. The two are closely related, and the one trouble in the past has been that both educa- tion and civic righteousness have been approached from too narrow a viewpoint. This accounts to some extent for the fact that the educator is considered visionary and impractical, and the politician selfish and unpatriotic. Study the leaders of the community. It is absolutely essential for the teachers and superintendents to know the leaders of the community if they would draw the community to the school. The first group of people, therefore, for the teachers to learn is the members of the school boards. Wherever a superintendent or group of teachers is constantly abusing the board members for their lack of cooperation or for their autocratic methods, it is usually due to one of two causes: (i) bad community politics or (2) poor management on the part of teachers and superintendents. Either of these a strong teacher or superintendent possessing a wholesome democratic spirit can in most cases finally correct. The first step, therefore, is to educate the school boards. In some states the school boards have been ii 4 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY organized, and they meet with the teachers in their general associations. In some counties the superin- tendents take committeemen with them as they visit the school carry them into other districts, show them the progress of other communities, and the difference between a good school and a poor school. In the course of a year a large number of committeemen has visited the schools of a county or of a city. Other successful superintendents take prominent citizens with them, men who are not connected officially with the schools, and give them an understanding of the needs and aims of the school. School boards as a rule will not counsel together until they feel the need of doing so, nor until their duties have been outlined and they have been confronted time and time again with them. Frequently, too, influential citizens make it less difficult for them to act. There- fore influential citizens of a community should be con- sulted and advised as to the plans and purposes of the school. In several states counties have local school officers' meetings, but these will be dry and formal and soon cease unless the superintendent and teachers arouse a purpose in them. Wherever the superintendent or the teachers can give the local school officials some very definite work to do in which the school cooperates, some- thing is gained. One great trouble is that these local officials, busy with their own affairs, do not know what their duties are, hence do not realize their responsibility. Teachers should exhibit some executive skill along this line and keep the officials better informed. Moreover, teachers should know the political leaders of the community, the officials who have been elected LEADERSHIP IN A DEMOCRACY 115 by the people to public office. Such officials should be invited to the school to discuss for the children the duties of their office and the relation of their office to the school. In a democracy the opinion of every man has some weight. Value of a school code. The school laws perhaps of every state in the Union give abundant evidence of this clash between the administrators of the schools and the people of the community. In many states the school system, if it can be called a system, has been built up by units. Special laws and special charters have endowed boards or superintendents with autocratic power, or have gone to the extreme of popular control. These have been added to from time to time until it is difficult to define the meets and bounds of the administrative officers. Whenever a board has wished to circumvent the will of the people, or whenever the people have wished to destroy a board or a superintendent, it has been too easy to secure a special law or an amendment to a charter granting additional powers; and not always have the changes or additions been made in the interest of educa- tion or for the purpose of securing the cooperation of the public. A school code, therefore, laying out broad lines, is needed in every state. Governor Martin G. Brumbaugh, of Pennsylvania, speaking of the school code in his state, says: Seven years ago we enacted here the School Code. It has now gone into operation and has been so generally understood that we look upon it as a sort of ancient document, not in terms of the life of the school but in terms of the life of the Commonwealth. The school code is still an untried and an undeveloped educational possi- bility, and I take it that in the next twenty years we shall find in that bond of common school law ample warrant for every form of 116 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY development and improvement which our school system will need in order to keep it constantly serving the Commonwealth. In the last session of the Legislature there were many school bills intro- duced by members of the Assembly which sought in one way or another to change the fundamental provisions of the Act. Many of these were smothered in committees, and some of them met with executive veto, because they did not hold within themselves any warrant of constructive help or improvement in educational condi- tions, but were brought out to serve some special interest or to give some individual or community an advantage over some other individual or community, and they were, therefore, unrighteous and died as they ought to die. Teachers and superintendents need to study the broad lines of fundamental law. Educational legislation has been too much of a patchwork of special permit and special exception, until now chaos instead of order reigns in many centers. Steps to be taken in educating the people. Teachers and principals have looked upon professional study as a subject dealing chiefly with the conduct of a recitation and the discipline of the pupils. Such a view is too narrow. It does not give the teacher a wide enough range for his activities. The teacher, as well as the minister or the lawyer, must take notice of a number of forces at work in the community. i. Betterment of the community. Is the teacher thinking in terms of the betterment of the whole community? What are the organized recreations of the young people and what do they need? Have the teachers studied the needs of young people at different ages? What notable progress made by other communities can be adopted by the teacher? What are the general educational policies of the state? Of the nation? A community cannot raise itself by its own boot straps. To leave the formation of the LEADERSHIP IN A DEMOCRACY 117 educational ideal to the community alone would foster provincialism and retard progress. The ideal must be formed out of the best that exists in the nation, and it is the duty of the educational leaders to draw the people of a community toward that ideal. 2. The community and the school. Is the teacher plan- ning to draw all the people of the community around the school? What uses are made of the local papers? Some superintendents edit a page once a week, and some publish monthly papers, in which important school legis- lation is discussed, special needs are set forth, and the state and national ideal is kept constantly before the people. 3. Supervision and expense. Can the principal or superintendent convince the public that supervision is paying and that the expense is justified? In some coun- ties the supervisors are important factors in the building up of the school and the community, while in others the people have declared war on them, and they have declared war on the people a strange and unpardonable crime against humanity. In some counties the special agents, such as the corn-club and tomato-club directors, carry on their work independent of the teachers and the school an anomalous condition for an educational organization. Teachers and superintendents are public officials, but how many can show evidence that their profession "is the noblest and the most important of all, the ministry not excepted"? Of course, this quotation, now common- place, sounds well uttered with the right accent, but how often would it be difficult to point to a community as a concrete illustration of this oratorical gem? CHAPTER XIV ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY FOR BETTER LEADERSHIP The School a Useful Center for the Community Life Merely to educate the young ought to be but a part of the mission of the school. This is important, of course, and it should be done much better than it is now done. The school, though, ought to reach out into the community life and influence it positively for good. The great and fundamental interests of the home and the vocation should be touched and quickened by it. A new sense of responsibility on the part of rural people for agricultural improve- ment and for the conservation of the soil should be awakened. The village, which is the center for an agricultural community, also should be awakened to a sense of its relationship to the problem of rural welfare. The conservation of soil fertility; the improve- ment of farming methods; the preservation of the natural scenery of the community; the dissemination of agricultural and general knowledge; the preparation for the intelligent use of leisure time; the improvement of home life; the conservation of child-life, girl- hood, and motherhood; the stimulating of social organizations to useful activity; and, in general, the development of a better rural society; all of these are as much legitimate functions of the redi- rected school as is the teaching to read and write and cipher. When teachers and school officials come to see this is so, then will the school be on the way to becoming a useful center for the community life. ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY, Rural Life and Education When the teacher may fail. The time has gone for- ever when the schoolmaster can live in his library and the schoolroom and conduct a successful school. Adam Smith opposed universal education at the public expense because the teacher, he said, would cease to exert himself in the community since his pay would no longer depend upon his drawing power as a teacher. That criticism of public education holds somewhat to-day so far as the teacher is concerned. 118 ORGANIZING FOR BETTER LEADERSHIP 119 The superintendent, the principal, and the teacher who confine their work solely to the making of courses, con- struction and care of buildings and grounds, and the teaching of children that attend school are only half way successful at best. This applies especially to teachers in city schools, who in many cases do not know the parents or the home life of the children they teach. They do not know what opportunities and aids the children may have at home. They do not know how much or how little work the children have to do before they come to school. Such teachers have missed the great purpose for which the school was established. They are putting the empha- sis on so much subject matter to be acquired by so many pupils within a given time, and by the system of average the teacher knows that at least 80 per cent of the pupils ought to pass. We have too long looked upon the school as a place where children are taught only certain prescribed lessons derived from textbooks. Reading and writing and arith- metic are now and perhaps always will be the very ABC of democracy. But the purpose of a community school to-day involves more than these. Conditions necessary for the building of a community center. It is a natural supposition that every teacher who holds a certificate possesses enough scholarship to instruct the pupils after they enter school. The great question, therefore, that should be raised in every teachers' meeting, in every association or institute, in every summer school or teacher-training institution, is this: How can the community be so organized that real, live community centers can be established at the school? i. Study the population of the community and its needs. The first step is to know the people. This will take time, xao EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY but it is necessary. About one-seventh of our population is foreign born, and about one-third is either of foreign birth or of mixed parentage. Not only should their chil- dren be taught, but the parents themselves should be taught to read the English language and to feel the force of American ideals. The foreign element cannot be Americanized solely by having their children taught. How many foreign-born patrons of the school read only papers published in a foreign language? What percentage of the people are illiterate? This is one of the first questions that teachers should answer. What percentage of the children belonging to school are regular attendants? Once having this information, the teachers may begin to plan ways and means for correcting the evil, by establishing schools for the adult illiterates and by seeing that the compulsory school laws and the child labor laws are enforced. In the rural communities how many citizens own the land they cultivate or the homes in which they live? James J. Hill has said that a population without land is a mob. Absentee landlordism is on the increase. In some communities not a single man living in the com- munity owns the land he cultivates, and in some years the entire school population is changed. The shift- less moving class of citizens, here this year, there next year, without community traditions or community ideals that come from a fixed residence, is a menace to society and is undoubtedly undermining the spirit of democracy in America. This is a topic that could very profitably be discussed in all teachers' meetings. With the information in hand, a solution of the problem may be sought. How many teachers and superintendents know the provisions of the ORGANIZING FOR BETTER LEADERSHIP xai Federal Farm Loan Bank Act? Is there a single citizen in the community who has been benefited by this act? If none has been, then where is there a man who has been benefited? What are other states and other nations doing to overcome the evil of absentee landlordism? This sub- ject alone could form the basis of much of the arithmetic, geography, current literature, and even of agriculture in the school. How many citizens of the community do not even patronize the school, do not think enough of it to let their children attend, but, on the other hand, send them away to some other community? In every community there are always a few children who should not attend a crowded public school. But there are always a few families who feel that their children are too good to mix with the com- mon herd. These are almost as hurtful to a community school as the landless tenant. In fact, they soon move away or become converted. In the former case, they increase the number of landless tenants. 2. Work for a larger school unit. Teachers should study the advantages of the consolidated districts and of the large school unit. When the nation was founded and public affairs were apportioned so as to make every citizen an acting member of this government, the "ward," as Jefferson called the small subdivision of the county, was made large enough to form a working civil unit. But with the establishment of public schools the "ward" has been divided and subdivided until the school district in most instances is too small and contains too few people to arouse enough enthusiasm qr cooperation for building a strong community. The small school, therefore, instead of building up a large civic center, has had just the opposite effect. 9 122 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY This subject of consolidation of small districts has been before the teachers for several years, and so much infor- mation on the subject may be secured from available sources as to make repetition here unnecessary. How- ever, there is just one thought to add to the mass of material published on this subject. If three or more teachers, for example, in three or more adjoining one-teacher school districts were to come together and study how to unite them into one consoli- dated district, the one-teacher school would almost disap- pear within a few years except in unusual centers where geographical conditions make consolidation impossible. One great trouble has been that all this work has been left to the county superintendent, who at times has been too busy with office details, or who has been afraid of causing some stir among his constituents, or who has been too autocratic to secure the cooperation of the people. The individual teachers, as a rule, have not looked upon this matter as a problem for them to help to solve. They have been too isolated. They have known too little about the adjacent districts. Rivalries and district jealousies have been kept alive by contests that have emphasized differences and local rivalries. The first step, therefore, is for the teachers to unite in some club work for instructing the individuals of the pros- pective consolidated school. There should be cooperation of students and patrons looking toward this end. We live in a democracy, not in an autocracy, and the people must be taught, not driven. The work of the consolidation of districts is going on slowly here, rapidly there, in every state in the Union. But as yet teachers in their professional meetings have as a rule given it little consideration. They have been ORGANIZING FOR BETTER LEADERSHIP 123 too busy studying methods and devices and courses of study. They should study consolidation with a view of putting it into practice. When teachers are organized, therefore, for professional study, they might be grouped into clubs in such a way as to emphasize the necessity of certain districts cooperat- ing with a view to consolidating later. Moreover, the citizens of the districts represented in these groups should meet together. They should unite in school contests, in fairs, and in matters pertaining to the general welfare. They should be taught first to cooperate. Then official consolidation may be effected without causing undue opposition. 3. A large unit for towns and cities. While we have been discussing consolidation of rural districts, too little thought has been devoted to a building program for the large towns and cities. Small buildings and small school units have been located as a rule on very small lots with- out any regard for the classification of pupils, the growth of population, or the future needs of the community. As a consequence when the capacity of a building is reached, some other small lot is generally selected in some other section of the town and there another small building is erected. In a large percentage of the towns having fewer than ten thousand inhabitants one school site sufficiently large to meet the needs of the community for a generation could be selected at a reasonable cost. Buildings could be erected on the unit plan, and ground sufficient should be reserved for all the athletic needs of the pupils. School authorities surely are not aware of the advantage to be gained from grading and classifying pupils through such a grouping of buildingsjm one large site. 124 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY In the large towns and cities a complete building pro- gram should be prepared one that will meet the needs of the future and all buildings should be erected in accordance with this program. There is almost as much to be gained through the proper grouping of buildings in the large towns and cities as there is to be gained by the consolidation of schools in rural districts. 4. Provide permanent homes for teachers. Teachers of the rural districts and of the towns and villages are for the most part a moving population. Like the landless tenant, they have no fixed abode. People as a rule do not like to take boarders. Even in the one-teacher school district it is frequently easier for a superintendent to find a teacher than it is to find a suitable boarding place for the teacher, and the trouble is proportionately mul- tiplied as the number of teachers in a community is increased. The teacher cannot become a real teacher and success- fully organize the community around the school unless he or she lives long enough in the community to know the people and to become well known. In one district in North Carolina where the teacher was unable to find a boarding place, the county superintendent advised her to secure board in a neighboring district near another school and agreed to transport the pupils to her. As a result, the next year the school building was moved and con- solidation was effected. The old story of the teachers "boarding around" in the community, or living as members of the family and being subjected to all the inconveniences of the individual members of a large family in a small house, is too well known to dwell upon here. But it should be repeated over and over again that a teacher living under such ORGANIZING FOR BETTER LEADERSHIP 125 conditions can do little in the way of building up a com- munity. The vexations arising from unsatisfactory living conditions kill the teacher's spirit, leaving little energy save for the usual school routine. There is only one remedy, it seems a good permanent home. Such conditions have led authorities in communities of nearly, if not quite, every state in the Union to erect homes in certain consolidated districts where five or more teachers are employed. This is not merely a rural-school problem. It is almost as difficult to secure satisfactory board at a reasonable price in the towns and cities as in rural districts. The Bureau of Education says that the teachers' cottage movement has developed rapidly in the past few years, and the General Education Board has been led to cooperate with a few communities in different states to help solve this problem. The report of one such school of Alberta, Stevens County, Minnesota, will be a value : The members of the staff form a cooperative family, pooling their activities and interests, utilizing the manse as a domestic science laboratory for the girls and as a social center for the community. For the first time in the history of the school, every teacher is a trained and experienced normal-school graduate. Thus it would appear that the teachers' home promises to realize the hopes of those who procured it. One teacher in North Carolina who lived in the school home last year gives the following interesting story: I have lived in a teacherage one year, and like it much better than boarding. It is a place that one can call home when out of school, and, too, it seems so good to be free after the day's work is over. The Teacherage is located in the little town of Gumberry, North- ampton County, North Carolina. There were five of the teachers who lived there together, two schools, Occoneechee and Gumberry combined, Gumberry having two teachers, Occoneechee having three. 126 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY This teacherage was rented by the committees of the two dis- tricts, and neatly furnished. The teachers paid the rent for furni- ture once a month which was $10. We hired our washing and ironing, but we did our own cook- ing, as we could not get a cook, and we thoroughly enjoyed the work. Four of the teachers did the work, one boarded with the other four. The work was divided this way: Two teachers cooked one week at a time, while the others did all the cleaning except the bedrooms. Each teacher looked after her own room. We ran an account at the stores in this little village, and paid up these bills once a month. A great number of things were given us, such as hams, canned fruit, apples, vegetables, milk, and butter. Of course this cut down the bills considerably. I hope it will be so I can live in a teacherage as long as I am teaching, for the expenses are nothing like as great as when boarding, and there's more pleasure for the teacher. 1 5. Use the county agents. One of the most important reforms needed in educational administration is the unifi- cation of the work of the teachers and the extension agents of a city or county. In most, if not all, the states some provisions have been made for one or all of the following agents or supervisors: health, fire prevention, lecturers, directors of boys' and girls' clubs, community recreational directors, and agricultural agents. These educational agents are appointed as a rule to work through the schools, but it is more than likely to be the case that they work independently of schools. Take, for example, the boys' corn clubs and the girls' canning clubs. It is impossible for one agent to cover a whole county, and yet, instead of working through the school, the agent in some states draws the club workers from the county at large, organizes them by districts or townships, and incidentally holds meetings in the court- house, sometimes in the schoolhouse, on Saturdays when 1 Training School Quarterly. ORGANIZING FOR BETTER LEADERSHIP 127 the teacher is out of the way. Sometimes the teacher volunteers to aid in forming a club much as she would aid in organizing a quilting party among the young people. Every city school and every rural school should be given instruction in some of the subjects in which the county demonstration agents are directly concerned. Yet how many of those agents are working with the teachers of the rural schools, to say nothing of the city schools? That is, do they help to enrich the courses of instruction by aiding the teacher in securing new material? Following are some of the things the county demon- stration agent should do. How many of them could the teacher in the city schools as well as the rural schools use? a) He encourages community cooperation. 6) He promotes improved methods of crop production. c) He introduces more and better live stock. d) He assists in the proper management of farm business. e) He establishes boys' agricultural clubs and garden clubs. f) He assists in marketing and distribution. g) He aids in the control of animal diseases. h} He works for the eradication of plant diseases. *) He helps in planning the construction of farm build- ings, poultry houses, barns, silos, pig pastures, etc. /) He conducts farmers' meetings, including lectures on how to keep a good garden. k) He assists in county and community fairs. /) He studies soil and plans for crop rotation, etc. Every school in the county bears some relation to a part at least of these duties and could use with advantage to the community the cooperation of the county agents. 128 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY 6. Cooperate with the moral or religious forces. The teacher should work in harmony with the moral and religious forces of a community. Pestalozzi in Leonard and Gertrude shows how a medieval cleric was perhaps the greatest dead weight that a community had to carry. And this is true to-day. In some towns and villages the denominations have been at war so long that they reach a truce only at this point the superintendent is chosen from one denomination for a term of years, and then he is discharged so that another denomination may have the control of the school for a while. A school that does not seek to enlist the cooperation of all the denominations and to abolish forever their sec- tarian warfare cannot become a community school. In some sections the union Sunday school has been established. In others Sunday-school work is encouraged to such an extent that high-school credit is given for successful work accomplished along certain lines. Many states have become interested in the matter of giving credit for Sunday-school work. Wilbur F. Crafts, in Bible in School Plans of Many Lands, discusses the many plans in use among the public schools for stimulating or giving school credit for Bible study out of school the North Dakota plan, the Colorado plan, the Gary plan, the New York City plan, the Pennsylvania plan, the Pittsburgh plan, the Australian plan, etc. Instead of divorcing the school from religion, the teachers should seek to utilize the religious forces of a community, for a school plan that does not commend itself to sound religion is a menace to the community as a whole. In this connection the Y.M.C.A. and the Y.W.C.A. and other religious societies should be encouraged. ORGANIZING FOR BETTER LEADERSHIP 129 The nation set the standard when it established a school for the training of religious workers and leaders in the army. The school for chaplains in which Protestants and Catholics sat under the same instruction sometimes a Protestant in charge, sometimes a Catholic is one of the finest lessons in religious cooperation that the world affords. 7. Enlist the fraternal organizations. Every community has one or more fraternal organizations that could be a power in helping to build a community school the junior order of the United American Mechanics, the Rotary clubs, the Masonic order, the Elks, the Fanners' Union, and others. Moreover, the different organizations of farmers should be brought to the aid of the community. Even a city school could profit by having representatives of these orders appear from time to time and discuss their plans, their hopes, their ideals such as the Grange, the Farmers' Alliance, the Farmers' Union, and other organizations. In addition to these there are a number of civic organi- zations already formed or that might be formed. Remem- ber that liberty is the first word in democracy, but that cooperation is the last word. Special clubs may be formed when the people cannot be reached through clubs already in existence, such as parents' meetings, young peoples' literary clubs, etc. 8. The example of the nation. The one great purpose of the school is to make every citizen of the community an acting member of the government by becoming a cooperating member of the community. The national government has set a great example in cooperation for the teacher to follow. How many organized agencies did the nation set to work for the purpose of bringing about 130 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY the cooperation of all the people? How many of these agencies have definite organizations in the community and how many could be organized? Each of these has its roots in the individual community. They form a sort of Jacob's ladder along which the spirit of democracy is ascending and descending. At one end is the home, the school, the church, and the club; at the other end, the appointed administrators of the whole nation. If the school, therefore, becomes a real community school, it must epitomize the spirit of democracy at work in the nation, and the energies of the community must be organized and set in motion to make it such. Each of the following agencies which were at work in the nation to prepare this country for war may find its counterpart in the community: the Council of National Defense, the Food Control Board, the organized experts of the country, the Red Cross Council, the War Trade Board, the War Labor Board, the Director of Transportation, the Federa- tion of the Churches of Christ in America, the Com- mittee on Public Information, the National Council of Education, the War Fund Committee, the Y.M.C.A., the Y.W.C.A., the Director of Playgrounds, and other educational activities of the country. Now that the war is over, how many of these or similar agencies can the school utilize in peace times in order to make every citizen a cooperating member of the com- munity? The name may be changed, and the aim may be different, but the example of the nation in organizing for war still stands as a guide to the school in organizing the community. The soul of the community will be found only when all its energies'are put into play. ORGANIZING FOR BETTER LEADERSHIP 131 Community center movement. The war has thrown such a burden upon the communities that the school is called upon to play a larger part in the life of the community than ever before. The National Community Center Association has been organized as a definite part of the National Education Association, to instruct teachers, county officials, and group leaders in problems of community organization and community service. The immediate purpose of this association is to link the community with the nation. The community center movement received its first impulse from Thomas Jefferson when this nation was organized. As a distinct organization, however, it had its origin in 1888 at Hull House, Chicago. It has grown from this small beginning, where social settlement work was its chief purpose, to include public-school teachers and farmers, recreation centers, wider use of the schools and school buildings, and social and civic centers, and finally the Council of National Defense recommended the nationalization of community councils with the use of school community centers. The purpose is to extend the community council system to every school district, to make the school plant avail- able everywhere for community use with paid community workers, to give adequate "overhead" educational in- formation, such as lecture-slide film package, and library service of a popular character, to each center, and to educate youth and adults in leisure hours to a sense of the worth, use, and possibilities for inspiring cooperative community life and national service. Cooperation is the watchword of the hour. Cooper- ation was essential to win the war, to unify the nation, to preserve our liberties, to build up a community. All tja EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY the forces of society have been brought together as never before; waste has been eliminated in order that the combined energies of a people might be brought into play. Teachers need to learn this lesson that the national government has been conducting, and they need to secure first of all the cooperation of all the forces of the com- munity for the better education of all the children and the building up of the community. CHAPTER XV DIRECTING THE ENERGIES OF THE COMMUNITY A Teacher on Trial They were talking about the methods adopted by Jim in his con- duct of the Woodruff school just talking He had burned the district fuel and worn out the district furniture early and late, and on Saturdays. He had introduced domestic economy and manual training, to some extent, by sending the boys to the workshops and the girls to the kitchens and sewing-rooms of the farmers who allowed those privileges. He had used up a great deal of time in studying farm conditions. He had induced the boys to test the cows of the district for butter-fat yield. He was studying the matter of a cooperative creamery. He hoped to have a black- smith shop on the schoolhouse grounds sometime, where the boys could learn metal working by repairing the farm machinery, and shoeing the farm horses. He hoped to install a cooperative laundry in connection with the creamery. He hoped to see a building sometime, with an auditorium where the people would meet often for moving picture shows, lectures, and the like, and he expected that most of the descriptions of foreign lands, industrial operations, wild animals in short, everything that people should learn about by seeing, rather than reading would be taught the children by moving pictures accompanied by lectures. HERBERT QUICK, The Brown Mouse, page 156 How can the community's energies be directed? In what ways can the teaching force of a community direct the organized energies of a community? When the children of a community are instructed, only a part of the duties of the school have been performed. In addi- tion to doing this work, the school should have some- thing of value for the young people who are not in school and for the busy men and women of the neighborhood. In a large majority of cases teachers have thought only of how the citizens can serve the school, and parents 134 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY think they have done their duty when they supply children and schoolhouse and money and elect the teachers. As a mark of respect to the teachers, however, they will sometimes assemble at school to witness exercises if they are not too busy and if their children take a prominent part. But this is not cooperation in the larger sense. How can the school, then, serve the community in such a way as to secure this larger cooperation? How can the united energies of a community be directed by the school in such a way as to make for community progress and human betterment? The teacher should begin at this point. What is the most needful thing to be done for the community? 1. Reconstruction work. Work that is related to reconstruction is now, of course, the first need of every community. For many years to come the example of mothers coming to the school to register, children taking home food pledge cards, fathers coming to the school to hear the issues of the war discussed, and all classes and ages using the school to organize for patriotic work, should serve the teacher as a fine lesson in school and community cooperation. A school that did not touch the community during the war in one of the many ways open to it for patriotic work was a dead school indeed. 2. Conservation of health. Conserving the health of a community is perhaps the next most important need. Dr. Thomas D. Wood, of Teachers College, Columbia University, published the following startling figures: The principle of national thrift finds its first and most vital appli- cation in the conservation and improvement of the health of the children. At least I per cent 220,000 of the 22,000,000 school children in the United States are mentally defective. DIRECTING THE COMMUNITY'S ENERGIES 135 Over i per cent, 250,000 at least, of the children are handicapped by organic heart disease. At least 5 per cent 1,000,000 children have now, or have had, tuberculosis, a danger often to others as well as to themselves. Five percent 1,000,000 of them have defective hearing, which, unrecognized, gives many the undeserved reputation of being mentally defective. Twenty-five per cent 5,000,000 of these school children have defective eyes. All but a small percentage of these can be corrected, and yet a majority of them have received no attention. Fifteen to 25 per cent 3,000,000 to 5,000,000 of them are suffering from malnutrition, and poverty is not the most important cause of this serious barrier to healthy development. From 15 to 25 per cent 3,000,000 to 5,000,000 have adenoids diseased tonsils, or other glandular defects. From 10 to 20 per cent 2,000,000 to 4,000,000 have weak foot arches, weak spines, or other joint defects. From 50 to 75 per cent 11,000,000 to 16,000,000 of our school children have defective teeth, and all defective teeth are more or less injurious to health. Some of these defective teeth are deadly menaces to their owners. Seventy-five per cent 16,000,000 of the school children of the United States have physical defects which are potentially or actually detrimental to health. Most of these defects are reme- diable. 1 It is the right of every citizen to be healthy, and a duty to do nothing that will prevent other people from being healthy. It is necessary, therefore, for all people to cooperate toward this end. One important question for the school to answer is : What is the cause of sickness or poor health in the community? The house fly is always a pest and a cause of disease. Poor milk, bad sewerage, unsanitary closets, bad ventila- tion, poor food, unsanitary surroundings, etc., are causes of poor health. The community should be studied, and the removal of the chief cause should be made the object iNew York Times, April 14, 1918. 136 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY of the club-work in which parents, teachers, health officers, and school children take part. What have other communities in this or in other countries done to improve living conditions? The story of how Rio de Janiero has risen from one of the most unhealthful cities of the world to one of the most healthful, of how the citizens are protected from flies and mosquitoes, would be a profitable lesson for any community. The community playground should be encouraged as a remedy for physical defects, both for children in school and for young people of the neighborhood. There should be a regular campaign to urge the young to play more out in the open. It is said that not over 30 per cent of the children even in our towns and cities derive any advantage from playgrounds. So valuable has the work of the Playground and Recreation Association of America become, that Secretary of War Baker declared, "I regard the work of the Commission on Training Camp Activities as a most significant factor in winning the war." 3. Make this children's year. President Wilson sent a letter to the Secretary of Labor, in which he says : Next to the duty of doing everything possible for the soldiers at the front, there could be, it seems to me, no more patriotic duty than that of protecting the children, who constitute one-third of our population. The success of the efforts made in England in behalf of the children is evidenced by the fact that the infant death rate in England for the second year of the war was the lowest in her history. Attention is now being given to education and labor conditions for children by the legislature of both France and England, showing that the conviction among the Allies is that the protection of childhood is essential to winning the war. I am very glad that the same processes are being set afoot in this country, and I heartily approve the plan of the Children's Bureau and the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense DIRECTING THE COMMUNITY'S ENERGIES 137 for making the second year of the war one of united activity on behalf of children, and in that sense a children's year. I trust that the year will not only see the goal reached of saving 100,000 lives of infants and young children, but that the work may so successfully develop as to set up certain irreducible minimum standards for the health, education, and work of the American child. The teachers should make every year children's year. It is their business. 4. The needs of the women. The needs of the women of the community may determine the direction which the work of the school and community shall take. The Normal School at Florence, Alabama, has been assisting the farm women in making and selling butter. During this time several thousand pounds of high-grade butter have been put on the market at an increase of as much as 125 per cent in price, not due to war prices, but due to improvement in the quality of the butter, the style of the package put up, and to the use of the parcel post for shipping instead of selling to country storekeepers or peddlers. The work is sometimes started in a county by finding one person who makes good butter and showing her how to fix it for shipping by parcel post. When the news begins to spread around through the country that certain people are shipping butter through the mail and getting almost double what they had been getting, the interest begins to grow. How easily any rural teacher could give her patrons a demon- stration of the best methods of packing butter for parcel post ship- ments! When one woman of a neighborhood learns how to prepare and to market butter, the work will go on. 1 Women have been organized into societies in rural communities and have been taught how to keep the most profitable poultry and to grade the eggs and market them to the best advantage. Needle work has become the object around which the women of a community are centered. The discarded 1 Educational Exchange. 10 I 3 8 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY garments of women, the left-over scraps or remnants of materials, and the discarded clothing of men are all used. One school hired a tailor for a few days to give the girls and women a few lessons. One mother dis- covered a way to give her two boys a large supply of white neglige" collars at comparatively no expense. The material used was scraps of white cloth left from various shirtwaists. Domestic science teachers have been employed by the school and community jointly to give lessons in cooking. This became a necessity when the food shortage had upset all old recipes. Moreover, community canning clubs have been formed, the school and the community working jointly to preserve as much food as possible. Outside pressure is actually forcing the school and the community together, and a teacher to-day who cannot arrange a good program that will interest a large num- ber of women is simply marking time and incidentally teaching a few children. 5. The needs of the men. The needs of the men of a community should be one of the main considerations in school and community work. The farmers surround- ing Lowe's Grove Farm Life School in North Carolina, for example, were unable to raise fruit, save now and then when nature favored them. The principal of the school in 1916 made a survey of the orchards. With the aid of the high-school boys he kept the trees pruned and sprayed. He suggested the kind of trees to plant and assisted in the planting. As a result, in the spring of 1918 the school was called upon to prune sixteen orchards and spray twenty-one. Through the activity of the school the neighborhood that had been a poor orchard section is now as productive as any section in the county. DIRECTING THE COMMUNITY'S ENERGIES 139 It is by no means difficult to maintain an orchard club in the Lowe's Grove community. The school-garden clubs, which will be discussed more at length in chapter xxv, offer fine opportunities for the organization of patrons and pupils. The patrons possess much practical knowledge that the teacher needs. They should therefore be invited to come to the school and to talk on the subject of gardens. The school-garden movement has spread all over the nation. The planning and ordering of seed for the community may be done in school. There seed-testing demonstra- tions may be given. Publications of experiment stations may be read and distributed among interested persons; trips may be taken into the rural districts to visit the best gardens, and incidentally to observe methods of raising fruit, poultry, and dairy products. Vacant lots may easily be utilized by the school, and the boys of the school may be organized into clubs to do work during vacation, for which they should be paid the usual price for such work. Secretary Franklin K. Lane has advised boys who are cultivating gardens to name them after soldiers who have gone to France. This resulted, it is said, in the naming of thousands of gardens after soldier boys. It is easy to see that this gave an additional motive for culti- vating school gardens. Every school might have something of value for the patrons of the community. Such help might be given in connection with the boys' and girls' clubs. It might be in the wise use of the library. Teachers might make a point of selecting certain books or articles from news- papers and sending them to patrons with instructions as to what they contain. 140 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY Cooperative buying and selling, rural credit, community savings banks these and a number of other things could form the basis of school and community cooperation. Wherever such cooperation is effected, patrons, pupils, and teachers, all are discussing the same things, and the educative value is just about threefold greater than when the teacher alone is the chief talker. 6. Food conservation. Food conservation should form a part of school and community instruction. Those who were living at the close of the Civil War know something of the efforts made then to conserve all material that might be of any use whatever. Parents taught their children that it was a sin to destroy food, and teachers reprimanded or otherwise punished pupils who deliber- ately threw food away. Children were taught in the homes that it was not good manners to leave food on their plates and that the saving and conserving of food and other useful material were cardinal virtues. Thus the school and the home taught the same lesson. This instruction covered a period of about a quarter of a century following the Civil War. Then there came an era of extravagance. Manners changed. It was now considered common or greedy or bourgeois to eat all that was put on the plate. The health officer began to appear, and he taught that putrefying food was danger- ous to health and that it was better to burn it than to throw it away. What was once a sin now became a virtue. But the garbage cans increased in size, the wasted food was carted away in barrels and used for fertilizer or as food for hogs, while the poor in many parts of the world could barely secure even the merest necessities. Then came the end of the old regime. The World War drew millions of laborers from productive employ- DIRECTING THE COMMUNITY'S ENERGIES 141 ment, and a food shortage in the world made enlightened people everywhere painfully conscious of their extrava- gant and wasteful habits; society returned to the simple doctrine taught in the home and the school at the close of the Civil War, and children and adults alike are again learning the lesson that extravagance is a social evil and that to destroy food is a sin. The world should never again forget this lesson, which has been relearned after so much suffering. When the National Food Administration called upon the schools to secure signers to the food pledge cards, the response was immediate, and the finest tribute that can be paid to a democracy is the compliment that Mr. Hoover paid to the American people when he said that they had voluntarily saved and sacrificed and that as a result the Allies in Europe were fed and their cause was saved. Notwithstanding the great response, there are still large numbers of people under the tyranny of old customs and traditions who take a selfish or individual- istic view of life and hold that they are under no obliga- tion either to save or to sacrifice. Here then is a great opportunity for the school. Teach- ers can help to overcome such an attitude by so organiz- ing a community and building up a community spirit that a sense of cooperation pervades the entire neighbor- hood. Organized public opinion rules the world. 7. Forest preservation. Preservation of the trees and forests is a vital subject for both school and community. The war has made a heavy draft upon the forests. The health and property of a people depend upon great stretches of forests and widely distributed areas of shade. There is an increasing demand for fruit- and nut-bearing trees. Our streets and highways should be lined with 142 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY trees, and our school grounds, our lawns, and our parks should be filled with trees. Governor Martin G. Brumbaugh, of Pennsylvania, in a proclamation setting apart Arbor Day in his native state, said: One cannot think of a treeless country as a great country. If we are to have a continuous flow of life-giving water in our streams; if we are to maintain our rapidly increasing population in health and happiness; if we are to provide recreation that is wholesome and helpful; if we are to increase the necessary animal life to provide food for our people; if we are to multiply the flocks of insect-devour- ing and song-throated birds; if we are to restore and maintain the Pennsylvania that was once our happy heritage, we must plant trees. The state of Nebraska has gone a bow shot beyond all other states by a resolution adopted by the General Assembly and approved by the governor in 1895, which designates Nebraska as "Tree Planters' State." 1 8. Social recreation for the young people. The school should promote social recreation for the young people of the community. In the larger cities there are so many centers of interest that the school can hardly compete with all of them. However, its literary societies and other organizations may afford an opportunity for bring- ing all classes together even where society is stratified. In the villages and towns and rural communities the school building is the one center where social enter- tainments should be held. There society is stratified least, and caste is not in evidence. The obligation of the school to promote social recreation for those young people and their parents is all the more imperative. Moving-picture shows may now be procured, victrola concerts may be given, plays, drills, and stories may be 1 See Brooks, Agriculture and Rural Life Day, Bureau of Education, Washington, D.C. DIRECTING THE COMMUNITY'S ENERGIES 143 provided, quartets and duets and community singing may be encouraged, current events pertaining to any vital question may be discussed. In North Carolina "it shall be the duty of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction to provide for a series of rural enter- tainments varying in number and cost consisting of moving pictures selected for their entertainment and educational value," and one-third of the cost will be paid by the state. In Bloomington, Illinois, community singing played a large part in the civic life of the people during the last winter of the war. Local musicians gave liberally of their time, civic organizations cooperated by taking care of the announcements, and nearly every school held a concert once every two weeks. Such social recreation and entertainment have decided moral values that affect a community for good. 9. Service flags. Every school should preserve its serv- ice flag. It should never forget the names of the boys of the community who went to the war, and at least once during the year the people of the community should meet at the school to pay tribute to those whose lives were offered up for the benefit of humanity. This will give an opportunity to discuss the causes of the war, the high moral stand this nation has taken, and the eternal values that should result from the great sacrifice. 10. Other methods of cooperation. Many other ways are open for the cooperation of school and community. The aesthetic life of the people should be stimulated. Keeping the school, the home, the church, and other public buildings and grounds clean and attractive should be a constant aim of the organized life of both the school and the community. We are having much to say about 144 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY the ruthlessness of the armies of the Central Powers in destroying the great cathedrals of Europe, in laying waste the country, and in stripping the land of its works of art. Boys and girls, young men and old men, who destroy or deface public buildings, park playgrounds, or in any way seek to diminish beauty in the world should hence- forth be classed with those vandals of Europe who brought so much sorrow to mankind. The installation of running water, electric lights, and telephones in country homes will make rural life more attractive, and discussion of these improvements should find a place in every school program. Fire prevention may be so emphasized that millions of dollars worth of property now lost through carelessness may be saved. Roads and streets may be studied, and the best means of constructing them and preserving them after they are constructed might form the principal part of a program once or twice during the year. Each community has some peculiar problem that the school might help to solve, and in the cooperation of school and community the teacher will be directing the energies of the people for good. One trouble in the past has been that teachers seemed to believe that all the subject matter worth while for the children was to be found in the adopted textbooks, and they have been little inclined to go out into the community and supple- ment the textbook with wholesome and live material. PART III A NEW EMPHASIS IN EDUCATION Higher Values in Education Pupils must be trained in the processes and power of judging fundamental values. They must come to know the meaning and significance of the ideals and institutions of our civilization. Their insight into values must go beyond the vocation that shall yield them a living. No man is equipped for life without some vocation; neither is he so equipped merely because he is trained for a vocation, no matter how expert he may become in it. He may have very distorted ideas of personal responsibility and of the relation of his vocation to the good of society Probably the school has not done as much as it ought to have done in this matter of making sure that the higher and more compre- hensive values appeal strongly to youth; that they not only recog- nize them intellectually but also prize them. From the social point of view this is one of the most important functions of edu- cation. The school, however, is not wholly to blame for failure at this point. Society is so organized that its own activities focus rather sharply the attention of children upon individualistic and materialistic and selfish aims. The other institutions of society, as well as the school, must come to realize the importance of inten- sifying the appreciation of things that have the larger social sig- nificance. MILLER, Education for the Needs of Life CHAPTER XVI A NEW EMPHASIS IN CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION What the Schools Must Change There are three things about the old-fashioned school which must be changed if schools are to reflect modern society: first, the subject-matter, second, the way the teacher handles it, and third, the way the pupils handle it. The subject-matter will not be altered as to name. Reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography will always be needed, but their substance will be greatly altered and added to But the schools are still teaching reading and writing as if they were ends in themselves, simply luxuries to be acquired by pupils for their private edification. The same thing is true of geography; pupils learn boundaries, populations, and rivers as if their object was to store up facts So teachers, instead of having their classes read and then recite facts from textbooks, must change their methods. Facts present themselves to every one in countless numbers, and it is not their naming that is useful, but the ability to understand them and see their relation and application to each other. So the function of the teacher must change from that'of a cicerone and dictator to that of a watcher and helper JOHN DEWEY, Schools of Tomorrow Need of a new aim. The school has two duties in particular: First, as a social institution it should seek to promote the general welfare of the community, the state, and the nation. This subject has been discussed in Parts I and II. Secondly, it should seek to promote the growth and proper development of individual pupils. The two duties are so related that it is difficult to separate them entirely. But the greater part of the work of elementary and secondary schools has been confined to the latter. I 4 8 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY In instructing the youth in the schoolroom, teachers have in the past made the mistake of looking upon the acquisition of knowledge as the end of instruction. "Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers," and the per- manent values that come through knowledge are included under the head of wisdom. They are spiritual, not material values. However, instructors have been too much inclined to emphasize the material rather than the spiritual. This has led teachers to make the acqui- sition of the knowledge incorporated in textbooks the goal of instruction. Since textbooks are really essential, learning the contents of a graded selection of books has become the chief part of school work. Teachers, therefore, need a new aim. They need to shift the emphasis from the acquisition of knowledge as an end to something higher, using subject matter as a means to the end. A new aim will lead teachers to seek more useful knowledge in order that they may be con- scious of attaining the desired end. Factors in the attainment of the new aim. The factors in the promotion of individual progress and social well-being are many and complex. But since the begin- ning of history they have been classified under these two heads, the material and the spiritual. The first includes geographic influences, natural resources, economic deter- minism, wealth, and human as well as material power. The second includes all the impulses of the soul the intent of man and groups of men, their hopes and ambi- tions, their inner longing for freedom, for an equal chance, for relief from tyranny, and for the equality of souls and equal opportunities in the kingdoms of this world as well as in the kingdom to be. Which of these factors does the teacher keep foremost? They are related as NEW EMPHASIS IN CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION 149 body to soul. But nations as well as individuals must answer the world-old question: What shall a man give in exchange for his soul? If the mere accumulation of knowledge, therefore, is the immediate aim of the teacher, the instruction is at its lowest ebb. It is materialistic, since it deals in quan- tities of history, of mathematics, or of geography. If the aim, however, is good citizenship and the subject matter is used as a means to attain that aim, the material is used to exalt the spiritual, and instruction is reaching a higher level. Character, right living, properly directed energy, etc., take precedence over the mere acquisition of knowledge as an end of instruction. Value of a new aim. Moreover, the proper use of the knowledge acquired is a higher aim than simply learning for knowledge's sake. Such an aim as the former will lead the teacher to shift the emphasis in a number of cases from certain old subjects to new subjects heretofore neglected. For example, in history and geography there is a greater need now than ever before for devoting more time and thought to the Latin-American countries in order that we may the better appreciate the civilization of those republics and effect a better relationship between them and the great North American republic. Moreover, it is obvious that the history of modern Europe should be given greater emphasis than the history of the ancient people. In arithmetic the emphasis should be shifted from problems or exercises that are purely academic to those that have an additional value in the life of the individual. For example, the old exercises that simply taught the student how to calculate percentage have less value than ISO EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY an exercise that teaches this and at the same time con- veys an additional truth, such as the calculation of the percentage of gain or loss in cultivating a particular acre of corn in order to learn whether the energy is properly directed. Two values are derived from this latter exercise against one from the former. And this is true of all instruction where the aim is higher than the mere acquisition of skill or knowledge. Teachers, therefore, should formulate an aim that is beyond the mere completion of an exercise, and as an aid such questions as these might be helpful: How do I expect to use the knowledge acquired and how shall I teach pupils to use it? What do I expect to accomplish by this particular subject during this particular year? How shall the result of my instruction affect the growth of the child during this particular year? Is it my purpose to make him a better citizen? What should be emphasized now that has not been emphasized heretofore? What may I draw from the community to supplement the subject matter of the textbooks that will help me attain my aim? In an attempt to make the community a better place in which to live, the aim should be to improve the char- acter and ideals both of the pupils and of the community in order to improve the citizenship. What is this basis of good citizenship? Not merely so much knowledge of history or literature or geography or mathematics or science. Such knowledge disassociated from the ideal may produce either a saint or a devil. Hence arises the danger from a low aim in teaching. What the teacher is able to do with the lesson after knowledge has been acquired is the determining factor in the making of a good citizen. NEW EMPHASIS IN CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION 151 The aim of the community in establishing schools has too often been entirely too low. Large sums of money have been donated or appropriated, not primarily for the education of children, but to improve the hogs, cattle, or poultry, to raise more corn or wheat or cotton, or to perpetuate some political theory or religious dogma. In the past the aim has kept in view, not the child, but some institution. The purpose of the following chapters, therefore, is to give instructors a new aim in teaching. Regard for law and order, a quickened moral sense, well-directed energies, a properly enlightened people, and useful knowledge about life and how to make a living these are the aims set forth. Dewey says that the subject matter will not be altered as to name, but that the substance will be greatly altered and added to and that the teachers must change their methods. The first step to take in changing old methods is to raise the aim of instruction. CHAPTER XVII REGARD FOR LAW AND ORDER THE BASIS OF GOOD CITIZENSHIP Teaching Respect for Law and Order Every school ought to be a center where respect for law and obedience to law are inculcated. ROBERT J. ALEY, President of the University of Maine What we seek is the reign of law based upon the consent of the governed and sustained by the organized opinion of mankind. I can never accept any man as the champion of liberty either for ourselves or for the world who does not reverence and obey the laws of our own beloved land, whose laws we ourselves have made. He has adopted the standards of the enemies of his country, whom he affects to despise. We proudly claim to be the champions of democracy. If we really are, in deed and in truth, let us see to it that we do not dis- credit our own. I say plainly that every American who takes part in the action of a mob or gives it any sort of countenance is no true son of this great democracy, but its betrayer, and does more to dis- credit her by that single disloyalty to her standards of law and of right than the words of her statesmen or the sacrifices of her heroic boys in the trenches can do to make suffering peoples believe her to be their savior. How shall we commend democracy to the accept- ance of other peoples, if we disgrace our own by proving that it is, after all, no protection to the weak? WOODROW WILSON Law holds society together. Law is the invisible bond that holds society together and supplies liberty to each individual. Without it society could not exist. When the individual, therefore, speaks of liberty and boasts of his independence, he is consciously or unconsciously admitting that the law of society is great enough so to regulate the habits of all people that he may move and live and pursue his happiness and enjoy well-being without interference. 152 THE BASIS OF GOOD CITIZENSHIP 153 Moreover, the individual who boasts that he does not observe the social code, that he can defy the conven- tionalities of the race, and that he does just as he pleases, is undermining the very foundations of society and restricting not only his own liberty but that of every member of society. The first step, therefore, in the mak- ing of a citizen is to plant in him a respect for law and for the institutions that seek to preserve law and order. Necessity for teaching law and order. The schools have been too negligent of this subject. It has been professionalized, and only those who expect to follow the legal profession, as a rule, are taught even the rudimentary principles of this subject. Every citizen, however, is a member of society, and since law is the bond that holds society together it is the duty of the school to make this subject an important aim of school instruction. There are too many people in the world who are not willing to abide by the rule of the majority. Moreover, there are those who have neither the inclination nor the patience to effect such changes in the law as accord with their deep convictions. Instead, they set their individual opinions above the organized opinion of society, seek to override its authority, and create confusion in the world. If democracy is to prove its superiority to autocracy in the world, the people of a democracy must learn to obey its laws. The youth of America, therefore, should be taught respect for and obedience to the law of the land which is the law of majority rule supported by all. It is this or the will of the autocrat or mob law. Evidences of our disrespect for law and order. It is charged by people of foreign countries, nations under monarchical forms of government, that "as a people we do not have that reverence for the laws of the land that 11 154 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY is certainly found in the people of some other countries," and that foreigners writing of our government have repeatedly called attention "to our general lack of respect for law." 1 What evidences are there of a " general lack of respect for law"? i. The prevalence of the mob spirit. One evidence is the prevalence of the mob spirit and the frequency of mob violence. The people are not disciplined to curb their passions and control their anger when a crime has been committed in their midst. In their haste to avenge the deed they override the jurisdiction of courts of justice and endanger the liberties of the people by their own lawlessness. President Wilson, deeply concerned over this growing tendency to countenance and encourage mob rule, issued an address to the people of the United States on July 26, 1918, in which he called upon his fellow countrymen to put an end to the mob spirit and to show to the world that while America was fighting for democracy in foreign fields, its citizens were not destroying democracy at home by encouraging acts of lawlessness that foster mob spirit. He declared: No man who loves America, no man who really cares for her name and her character, or who is truly loyal to her institutions, can justify mob action while the courts of justice are open and the governments of the states and nation are ready and able to do their duty. We are at this moment fighting lawless passion, Germany has out- lawed herself among the nations, because she has disregarded the sacred obligations of law and has made lynchers of her armies. Lynchers emulate her disgraceful example. I, for my part, am anxious to see every community in America rise above that level, with pride and a fixed resolution which no man or set of men can afford to despise. 1 Robert J. Aley. THE BASIS OF GOOD CITIZENSHIP 155 The time for building up inhibiting forces in society is in the calmer periods when society is not stirred by any crime. When people set their opinions above the law and intend to be lawless, nothing short of a standing army can check them. In fact, we have so many examples of an intent to commit crime and of the willingness even of the community not only for lawlessness to reign, but for children to be the witnesses of its sanction, that it has become, under certain circumstances, a sort of noblesse oblige for an individual to assume the right to avenge a crime, as gentlemen of a half-century ago felt called upon to draw their swords in accordance with this code duello. 2. Juvenile crime. Juvenile crime is another evidence of lack of respect for the law. Our court records show that children of all ages are hailed before the courts; and since the outbreak of the war, the evidences show that juvenile crime has been on the increase. Lawyers and judges speak of the majesty of the law. But how many young people of today have respect for His Majesty? Child delinquency and juvenile crime, reformatories, and, worse, the herding of young people in jails or workhouses with hardened criminals, are evidences that the youth of the country have not received that training in society that habituates them to an orderly life. The riotous youth in the home with no respect for God or man is an evidence that the home is negligent at this most vital point. There is nothing more exasperating to the people of a community than a lawless child, one that is declared by common consent to be a nuisance in the heart of society. And yet the people of a community are more or less responsible for the making of such a character. They declare it to be an outlaw and then kick 156 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY it about from pillar to post; they make it the butt of ridicule or hound it from street to street and from alley to alley. They drive it from school and chase it out of the playgrounds, and just as a drove of hogs is vicious toward the runt, so society is viciously inclined toward the morally stunted, especially if it belongs to a lower social caste. 3. The mob spirit among boys. The mob spirit makes its appearance at times among boys of a community. They are too often considered without the jurisdiction of the courts, and depredations committed by the group by high-school boys, by college boys in the form of hazing or in nightly raids are violations that the Presi- dent of the United States indirectly asks the teachers and all good citizens to correct. But when the school would seek to correct these evils, people of the community too often declare that "boys will be boys," and go to any length sometimes to palliate the offense or to excuse altogether the offenders, especially if they belong to the higher social caste. 4. Lack of respect for the flag. Before America entered the war the people of this country paid little attention to the passing of the Flag or to the singing of our national hymns. It should not require another war to make American citizens everywhere uncover in the presence of the Flag and to stand at attention while the "Star- Spangled Banner" is played. This is merely an outward sign of respect for authority. But the absence of this sign before the war had become a reproach and was indeed one scale by which Americans' respect for the majesty of this nation might be measured. The Stars and Stripes is the symbol of the power and authority of this nation, and whenever people are so thoughtless as to show it no respect they are usually THE BASIS OF GOOD CITIZENSHIP 157 ignorant or selfish individualists who look upon law at times as a hindrance to their liberties. Therefore a lack of respect for the American Flag is frequently a sign of a lack of respect for law and order. The age of responsibility. While individuals in society seek to excuse at times the lawlessness of the youth, society as a whole is more or less inclined to hold them responsible for their acts. In every state the age of responsibility is clearly stated. It does vary, however, in different states. In North Carolina, for example, no child under seven years of age can be held responsible in the courts for his acts . Between seven and fourteen a child is supposed to be innocent. But if it can be shown that he is conscious of the differ- ence between right and wrong, he may be held responsible for the act. After fourteen, however, the child is supposed to be on the same legal plane as the adult. There is not a stage, therefore, from the primary grades through the high schools at which ja. child may not be held accountable by the courts for his wrongdoing, and special juvenile courts are established in many states for the sole purpose of disposing of youthful offenders. Respect for law easily taught. It does not seem to be a difficult task to inculcate in young people respect for law and train them in habits of obedience to those in authority. This fact is shown in our schools to-day. The writer investigated several schools and asked the super- intendents to give the number of students in each that gave trouble on account of wilful disobedience, and the number was so small as to make it a negligible quantity. Many students came from homes in which little pains had been taken to teach them obedience and where the reputation of the children for lawlessness was posi- tively bad. But when they came under the jurisdiction 158 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY of another institution where law and order were the rule, they soon became habituated to the new rule of life and ceased to be lawless in that institution. When they went back, however, into the old environment where law and order were not enforced, they were inclined to follow old habits. Thus it is that children are sometimes Dr. Jekyll in one environment and Mr. Hyde in another. The juvenile court presided over by Judge Ben Lindsey, of Denver, Colorado, presents another illustration of the fact that it does not seem difficult to teach young people a respect for law and order. Young people who have come before his court and have felt deeply the force of justice at work in society have gone back into the world and have become helpful and worthy citizens of the community. The history of the moral development of a people pre- sents abundant evidence to show how quickly society cor- rects an evil when it is determined that such an evil must cease. Duelling in the South is a conspicuous example- Moreover, many young men and young women whose reputation in youth for lawlessness was positively bad, and who never came under the influence of any definite instruction, soon by their own reasoning, it seems, ceased to be lawless and have become worthy citizens. In fact, so little has been done in a definite way to teach the youth respect for the laws of society in our democracy that the wonder is that the mob spirit is not greater than it is and that growing people have as much respect for law and order as they do have. Perhaps the explanation of this is found in the influence of the church, which is the one institution that definitely aims to make men and women better citizens. The duty of the school. Unquestionably the school has been negligent at this point. Teachers have doubt- THE BASIS OF GOOD CITIZENSHIP 159 less been misled by the belief that because all children were obedient in school they would be obedient to the laws of society when they were transferred from school to society. Observation, however, would lead one to the conclusion that the youth, as a rule, readily habituates himself to the ways and needs of the social group of which he becomes a member. Therefore, when the youth leaves school and passes into a social group where parents or other associates talk of taking the laws into their own hands, where lawlessness of young people is winked at, where the miscarriage of justice is too real to pass unno- ticed, where one class is permitted to break the law with impunity and another class is held to a strict account- ability even for the smallest infractions of the social rule where these conditions exist in society, the habit of obedience acquired in school is a small guaranty, indeed, that these same habits will be carried over into a different society. It is the duty, therefore, of the school to reach society. The school may do this in two ways: (i) by attempting in a general way to change social habits by working in the community in conjunction with the church, the home, and the agencies that seek to better the race; and (2) by follow- ing the students into society, by keeping in touch with them after they leave school, and by encouraging them to keep alive the ideals that they upheld while in school. Our educational institutions have done too little of this follow-up work. But if they are to help make our society here in America a safe place for democracy, much more of this follow-up work must be done. How the school may give instruction in this respect will be treated in the next chapter. CHAPTER XVIII SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHING RESPECT FOR LAW AND ORDER How to Return to a True Democracy Manjr causes have contributed no doubt to bring about this decline in respect and reverence for authority and law. The weak- ening of religious faith, the loosening of the bonds of parental con- trol, the absence of real discipline from school life, have all been at work to undermine the foundations of respect and reverence. We shall never get back to a true democracy, however, until the majesty of the law excites reverence and respect on its own account; until the family bond is drawn closer and tighter, and until children honor their parents as they did of old; and until the school understands that abdication of authority is not a solution for the difficulties of discipline. NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER Is it not clear, then, that one of the first duties of the public school is to make its charges intelligent concerning these questions that most vitally concern our community welfare? And is it not also clear that they should learn to apply the knowledge of cooperative social betterment imperatively demanded for their daily lives? .... Instead of insisting upon the deepening of our academic ruts, the school must stimulate the public intelligence, inculcate aggressive public righteousness, and exalt conscientious public service. WILLLAM D. LEWIS Make pupils acting members of the government. Thomas Jefferson's principle that it is the duty of all political institutions to make "every citizen an acting member of the government" should be applied to the school. This subject has been discussed at length in chapters xi and xii. This much, however, should be said here: The obedience of pupils in school is more or less obedience to autocratic power. They are not bred to local self-government, as a rule. But they should not 160 TEACHING RESPECT FOR LAW AND ORDER 161 only be trained to aid in making and in executing at least in part the rules that are to govern, but as soon as possible they should be given practice in formal parliamentary procedure. The importance of such practices in school cannot be emphasized too strongly. Even before the child has reached the stage when it can enter intelligently into these larger organized activities, this respect for the rule of lawmaking bodies, including the home and the school, should be emphasized. As the race has passed from individual or family con- trol, which is largely autocratic, to the clan, the state, and the nation, so the child passes from the autocracy of the home to a more democratic domestic life. This broadens into a community life and finally widens into a patriotism that is nation-wide. Proper use of the textbook. Respect for law and order in a democracy is so essential that it should be the aim of much of the classroom instruction. History especially lends itself to this kind of instruc- tion. How mankind has been governed in the past, how the struggle for representative government began early, how man has fought desperately to make it sup- plant autocratic government, how the World War was a continuation of the struggle, and how the greatest tragedy the world has known was a conflict of the two ideas in government are topics that should not escape the teacher. The world has been moving slowly upward from primi- tive days when man ruled by the club or the gun, to the more enlightened days when law has begun to take the place of physical force as the controlling factor in the conduct of man. 162 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY Beginning with the Ten Commandments, the earliest of our body of laws, and coming on down through the Roman age when law was given a wider significance in the conduct of men, the teacher may impress upon the students the importance of law as a rule of society. The Magna Charta, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the federal Constitution are liberty documents that stand as guaranties of the rule of right. Teachers, therefore, should have this aim in teaching history: to lead the pupils to an understanding of how the world has been moving from tyranny toward freedom and of the struggles of the race in order to win a rule of right and justice. How man has learned to cooperate with his fellow men is the outstanding fact of the ages. Cooperation is a sign of the spirit of democracy at work cooperation in making and executing laws, cooperation through taxation in supporting political institutions for the benefit of all, cooperation through voluntary con- tributions in supporting religious and charitable and benevolent institutions for the benefit of all, and cooper- ation in industrial institutions for the welfare of all. The teachers who miss this aim in instructing children in history miss a great aim. But those who keep it in mind will find that the values of honesty, truthfulness, industry, justice, wisdom, and good will, as well as the other social virtues, will begin to appear in striking contrast to their corresponding vices. Civics, likewise, lends itself to this aim in teaching pupils to have regard for law and order how individu- als in society cooperate to provide schools, water, health, roads, streets, protection of life and property, and even the conveniences of life, and how lawlessness or a failure to cooperate may increase ignorance, inconvenience, TEACHING RESPECT FOR LAW AND ORDER 163 disease, and much distress among the people these sub- jects offer opportunities for instruction in law and order. Moreover, at every county seat are found the court- house, the judge, the jury, the sheriff, and other officials whose business it is to preserve law and order and to provide for the well-being of society. How are these officers elected? What are their duties? How can individuals cooperate with them in making a better society? Biography also offers valuable material for giving instruction in law and order. The examples of great men furnish a standard for judging conduct. Great men seek to exalt the rule of right above the rule of might. A certain governor of one of the southern states achieved national distinction for the heroic manner in which he quelled a mob and prevented a lynching. The story of such acts as this should be told, for the heroism of the governor will rise higher than the courage of the mob leaders and give the youth a standard by which to judge conduct. The teacher should seek such stories in the lives of our great men, both dead and living, and present them to the children in school. There have been great schoolmasters who became famous because of their efforts to make their pupils feel the necessity of cultivating respect for law and order. Two men who were schoolmates in their boyhood days met one day for the first time after a score of years in one of the hotels of Washington. Naturally, their con- versation soon turned to their early home life, their boyhood associates, and their school days. They spoke affectionately of the old schoolmaster who taught them for so many years in the home community but who had long since passed away, unknown to fortune and to fame. 164 EDUCATION. FOR DEMOCRACY "What do you recollect most pleasantly of all his instructions?" one asked. Without hesitating or seeming to attempt to recall any particular characteristic of his instructor, the other replied : "His morning lectures just after prayer on public questions, and especially on the rights and duties of a citizen." "I had the same idea in mind," the first agreed. " My respect for law and order was formed by him." The same testimony is given of Thomas Arnold, who studied Roman law and Blackstone in order that he might guide the students of Rugby toward better citizenship. When he thought of the social evils of the country, it awakened a corresponding desire to check the thoughtless waste and selfishness of school boys; a corresponding sense of the aggravation of those evils by the insolence and want of sympathy too frequently shown by the children of the wealthier classes towards the lower orders; a corresponding desire that they should there imbibe the first prin- ciples of reverence for law and regard for the poor which the spirit of the age seemed to him so little to encourage. 1 The old-time schoolmasters who live to-day so affec- tionately in the minds and hearts of the men who are carrying the burden of the nation and striving to keep its ideals clear were the embodiment of law and justice. And their masterful manner in presenting truth and the simple but fundamental rule of life made them builders of the nation. The great schoolmaster of the Revolu- tionary period not only was a factor in training men for citizenship, but he was called into the councils of the nation to aid in shaping the state and federal constitutions. Respect for the Flag. American schools in the past have been very negligent in teaching respect for or the 1 Stanley's Thomas Arnold. TEACHING RESPECT FOR LAW AND ORDER 165 use of the American Flag. But why should this respect for a nation's flag be taught? Flags symbolize the noble aspirations and glorious achievement of the human race; they epitomize the romance of history; they incarnate the chivalry of the ages. Their origin is divinity itself; for when at the beginning of recorded time, Jehovah made a covenant with man, promising that never again would He send the waters to cover the face of the earth and destroy all flesh, He unfurled the first flag the multihued banner of the rainbow which He set in the clouds as a symbol of security and an assurance to all future generations of His watchful care. And since that day man has, in his finite way, employed his earthly banners as emblems of faith, of hope, and of high resolve. Around the bits of varicolored bunting which the people of each land nominate as a national flag, there cluster thoughts of loyalty, of patriotism, and of personal sacrifice which have enabled the world to move forward, from the days when each individual struggled for himself alone, like other wild animals of plain and mountain side, until, through community of interests and unity of effort, mankind has been enabled to rear the splendid structure of twentieth century civilization. 1 What is the history of the American Flag? Any good encyclopedia contains the story. What has it stood for in history? Its answer is read in the achieve- ments of the American people everywhere. Teachers should read the address of President Wilson on "Flag Day" and of Secretary Franklin K. Lane on "The Making of the Flag." It should be the ideal of the school to fly a clean flag over a clean school. As the people of the nation should do nothing unworthy of the best traditions of the Flag, so the school should do nothing that would bring reproach upon it. Not only should the teacher know the correct method of displaying the Stars and Stripes, but he should instruct * Gilbert Grosvenor, National Geographic Magazine, October, 1 66 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY both the pupils and the people of the community in the proper use and care of the flag. (See Part IV, pages 254-256, for directions.) Court procedure as an aid in teaching respect for law. A study of court procedure of the past decade will dis- close the facts that the public conscience has been aroused and that the number of mob leaders haled before the courts and convicted of crimes against law and order has greatly increased. Such knowledge should form a part of school instruc- tion. The time to build up an inhibiting force in the mind of an individual is when the passions are calm and the spirit is in a state to receive instruction. Week after week and year after year students should be told what society expects of every citizen, and how heavily the hand of the law falls upon the offender, and what great injury is done to society as a result of mob violence and individual lawlessness. The President's message on the subject should be hung in the schoolroom, and should be made a part of the school creed. At every meeting of parents it should be re-read, and talks on law and order should be given periodically. Moreover, the court records show what crimes are committed in a community. How many teachers know the most common offenses against society that come before the courts? The law of the land as an aid in teaching respect for law. In olden times it was the purpose of kings and tyrants to keep the people in ignorance of the law in order that they might tyrannize over them. The world fought for centuries to correct this evil, and to-day ignorance of the law is no longer an excuse for a violation of the TEACHING RESPECT FOR LAW AND ORDER 167 law. Not only are the laws published, but the records of the court are open for inspection in order that all citizens may know what is an offense against society and how offenders are treated. The court records show what crimes and misdemeanors adults are guilty of and how society is trying to protect itself against them. Moreover, these same records show that children as well as adults are haled before the courts for breaking the laws of society. The teachers of every school should study the courts the magistrate's court, the recorder's court, and the Superior Court. How is a case tried? How is a man tried for an offense? What are the offenses that usually come before the courts? These are questions that every teacher can learn readily. Whenever teachers feel that they are not competent to discuss these evils and the methods of correcting them, a magistrate, or lawyer, or judge, or some other public citizen might be called upon once a week or oftener to lecture on some phase of the law that comes within the experience of pupils. The great purpose of the school is to make the child fit to enjoy the freedom guaranteed to him by a democ- racy. The rights and duties, therefore, of an American citizen should be taught in every school, and the govern- ment of a child should parallel as nearly as possible the government of an American citizen, for the basis of all good citizenship is respect for law and order. CHAPTER XIX SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHING RESPECT FOR LAW AND ORDER Continued Importance of Teaching Law and Order Children may be made to understand that school laws are the expression of careful wisdom. This understanding is impeded in some cases by conviction based on experience that home laws often represent impulse or impatience or a failure to appreciate the con- ditions of child life. But even here the reasonableness of the aca- demic regulations may be made clear The importance of the whole matter is evidenced by the continual complaint of the ineffectiveness in teaching respect for law Children are conscious only of the restraint of it. They conse- quently hate it and on every convenient occasion react from it. They are at war with the teacher in the school, and they continue to be at war with the policeman when they get out of school The essence of sound political lif e is in regard for law as a common possession. It is our law, made for us by men whom we have chosen for that purpose, enforced by men in uniform whose salaries are paid by us in the form of taxes. It is a regulation agreed upon by us all as the best method for procuring order and efficiency in the living of our life. E. HERSHEY SNEATH and GEORGE HODGES, Moral Training in the School and Home Parallel between law of the land and law of the school. Teachers are often too shortsighted in their application of the rules governing the school. This important subject is viewed frequently from too narrow a view- point. As a result, pupils, as a rule, see only obedience to autocratic power. However, there are very few important rules in school that do not have their parallel in the laws of the state and the nation laws that the patrons of the school helped to make or have agreed to support. 1 68 TEACHING RESPECT FOR LAW AND,ORDER 169 The following outline, therefore, may serve as a guide to teachers in their efforts to create in the minds of the pupils a respect for law and order, and also as topics for discussion by the pupils or by visitors who may be invited to discuss some of the fundamental rules of society for the benefit of the pupils. 1. Carelessness and negligence. It is said that in Amer- ica the cost to society in one year (1900) from carelessness and negligence amounted to over six hundred million dollars. The law holds a man responsible for the damages if his neighbor or a stranger or an employee is injured because of his carelessness or negligence. Such acts, therefore, must be very numerous, since the total cost in one year is so great. How many acts under this head can the teacher and pupils name? The negligence or carelessness of pupils in school or at home is a source of constant annoyance and a hin- drance to the prosperity and happiness of others. Com- pare such negligence or carelessness with that of a man who is compelled to make good the damages resulting therefrom. 2. The misuse of other people's money. A bonding company in 1917 compiled reports of embezzlement for that year. In the main its figures covered cases that involved a loss to bonding companies alone. The total was over thirty million dollars. The true total would no doubt be much larger, since a good many embezzle- ments occur of which bonding companies never hear. This is one evidence that many people are not reliable when intrusted with other people's money. The law is especially severe against those who fail either through dishonesty or through weakness although they did not intend to do wrong. What acts constitute embezzlement ? 12 170 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY Moreover, if a man intrusts a package to an express company, or to any other company or party doing a busi- ness for the public, or to a friend to be delivered or repaired, the law holds the company or individual respon- sible for the safe delivery of such an article. Good faith and responsibility are essential to freedom and progress. The need of exercising extreme care in handling other people's money or property should be emphasized in school. The growth of school banks and the development of school clubs or societies in which fees are exacted from the members offer opportunities for discussion of this subject, and for impressing upon the pupils the need of exercising great care. How many schools could present evidences of bad management of school activities or school publications that would be criminal if the parties in charge of the business were adults? 3. Using one's name or word falsely. Forging checks or some name other than that of the owner to a document, passing worthless checks, securing property or other advantage through false pretenses, disposing of mort- gaged property or property that belongs to others these and a number of other acts to which people resort to secure unjustly that which rightfully belongs to others are crimes against society. This offense against society may be compared with acts of pupils in signing their names to work done for them by parents or companions, in copying from other students or other sources and offering such work as their own, and in other acts by which pupils attempt to secure advantage without giving honest work. 4. Failure to keep a contract. An injury that results from the failure of an individual to keep his promise whether made orally or in writing is a violation of a TEACHING RESPECT FOR LAW AND ORDER 171 contract, and the court holds the violator responsible. It is unfortunately true that a man's word is not always his bond. In the business world a man's word is frequently not as good security as his horse or his cow or his hog, because his word is not a guaranty that his promise will be kept, and our whole mortgage system has been built up to make men keep their word in business. Most people are careless about keeping engagements. Those who lightly regard engagements are held to a strict accountability by the courts wherever the offended can show damage. The youth should be taught to value other people's time, which to busy men and women is more valuable than property. To take up a man's time by keeping him waiting beyond the limit of the agreement is wrong. It violates the very basis of law and order. It disturbs the energy and character of people and sows discord in the world. How much damage results to pupils, to the school, and to people in general because of this lack of regard for punctuality and this failure to keep one's promise or engagement ! Students should be held to a strict account- ability for failures in this respect, and, above all, teachers should set the example in being punctual and in keeping their promises. 5. Nuisances. Any citizen can become a nuisance or maintain a nuisance in a community for which he may be held responsible, such as violating the sanitary regu- lations, reckless driving, keeping immoral or disorderly places, disorderly conduct, loud and continued use of profanity or vulgarity in public, or keeping animals that disturb the community or endanger its health. What conduct of students may cause them to be classed as nuisances? 172 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY 6. Injury to other people's property. No man may with impunity damage another's house or trees or animals or property of any kind, or permit his children or cattle or other animals to injure the property of others, without being held responsible for the act. Moreover, all injury to parks and playgrounds or public buildings, either by destruction or by defacement of the property, is punish- able by fines and imprisonment. In addition, no one is allowed to injure his own property in such a way as to diminish the value of property in a community, such as burning his own house or killing his own horse. What injury to property is done by students that might be classed as a misdemeanor? Injury to property is closely akin to the taking of others' property, which is called larceny, and every student should know and feel the importance of respecting other people's property. 7. Injury to persons or to one's good name and reputation. The law holds a man responsible for injury to another's body or to his feelings or to his good name and reputation, and those who are guilty of causing injury to one's person or slandering his good name and reputation may be severely punished. The greatest crime against an indi- vidual is to destroy his body or murder him. Carrying concealed weapons, such as pistols, dirks, or razors, is an evidence that the individual intends to do injury to persons; therefore carrying concealed weapons is a viola- tion of the law. What acts of pupils might be classed as crimes or misdemeanors under the law? 8. Vagrancy or lack of visible means of support. Those who do not work and who live by begging or stealing or other questionable means are considered enemies to society. Hence we have workhouses in which such TEACHING RESPECT FOR LAW AND ORDER 173 people may be confined and made to work. The state expects everyone to have an honest vocation and to earn his own living by fair and virtuous means. That is why gambling and cheating are offenses against the law. What then is the duty of the school in its relation to the occupations of a community? 9. Assault and battery. Fighting or causing a brawl between people is an offense. This may be done by mak- ing threats, or by using language that arouses one's wrath or excites to anger. Those who are responsible for starting a fight are held to account for the act, not those who defend themselves; for the law accords a man the right to protect or defend himself against violence and injury. Do teachers observe the same rule in regard to punishing children for fighting? 10. Duties toward the home. The law says that a man's home is his castle. The state, therefore, seeks in a number of ways to protect men and women in the enjoyment of their homes, and those who in any manner disturb the peace or purity of the home of another may be guilty of the most serious offense against the state. In a certain institution of one of the southern states, established for the correction of youthful criminals, every child either comes from no home or from one that had become so demoralized that it was worse than no home. The safety of a nation, therefore, depends upon the purity and strength of the home; hence the state holds an indi- vidual strictly to account for aiding in disrupting a home. 11. Duties to the state. There are a number of laws that might be classed under the head of duties to the state, such as listing and paying taxes, and aiding officers in enforcing law and in performing their duties. Those who interfere with a policeman or postman or fireman 174 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY or judge are violating the law. Moreover, it is an offense for citizens to refuse to aid the officers in enforcing law and order. In how many ways may pupils aid the officers of the community? These are some of the most important topics that the high school could well afford to develop. There is no more reason why a knowledge of the law should be pro- fessionalized and designed for only the specially initiated than why any other important subject dealing with social relationships should be professionalized. It has been the writer's experience that, wherever these topics have been discussed among teachers and pupils, both were greatly interested in them and were stimulated to ask pertinent questions that showed how quickly the young mind felt the need of seeking further knowledge of a practical sort. CHAPTER XX A QUICKENED MORAL SENSE NECESSARY TO GOOD CITIZENSHIP The Importance of Moral Instruction The foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality. There exists in the course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness, between duty and advantage, between honest policy and public felicity The propitious smiles of heaven can never be expected on a union (or government) that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which heaven itself has ordained. George Washington's Farewell Address The evidence shows that in all the countries from which we have received reports those who have special knowledge of social needs regard the moral influence which may be exerted by the schools as being of primary importance to national well-being. The question of moral education is the heart of the modern educational problem. If this is neglected, education is a peril. M. E. SADLER, Moral Instruction and Training in School The hardest struggles and greatest victories still ahead of the individual lie in the field of moral control over the self. He has not yet fully realized in experience that it is better to rule the spirit than to take the city, and that there is real victory in going the second mile with him who compels us to go one mile. One can hardly doubt that the greatest weakness in our present civilization is at the point of moral control. Nor can there be found any other weakness so fatal to the stability and success of a democracy. No perfection of the machinery of government, no excellence of programme on the part of the social institutions, no amount of increase in national resources and wealth, and no degree of intellectual culture and development on the part of a people can result in permanent welfare and stable progress if the moral element is lacking. It becomes one of the first concerns of education, there- fore, to develop in the individual a sense for moral values, and to give him the fullest possible control over the moral aspects of his experience. GEORGE H. BETTS, Social Principles of Education A lesson from the war. The World War is a tragic example of the evils resulting from a corrupted or deformed 176 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY moral sense. The civilized world, outside of the Central Powers, could not or would not believe that such bar- barous inhumanities, such gross injustice, and such sickening immoralities as those that accompanied the German armies could have the sanction of the rulers of an enlightened nation. The moral code of a nation, of a community, of a family, may be so low as to place the people out of har- mony with the rest of the world, and so dwarf their per- spective as to make them incapable of understanding the acts and motives of a people who have developed a fine moral sense and who maintain a high ethical standard. Mr. Vernon Kellogg, who served with Mr. Herbert Hoover in Belgium, writing of the Germans in Belgium, 1 tells the story of a depraved moral sense that is nothing less than a spiritual tragedy. A German diplomat, in speaking to him of the attitude of Germany to other nations, said in all seriousness: "Our statesmen do not understand your statesmen; our diplomats do not understand the people to whom we send them; and we lose by it; we suffer by it." He said further that it was impossible for Ger- mans to understand why Americans and others hated them because they blew up undefended cities and killed innocent women and children when they were deriving a certain military advantage from the acts. But perhaps the strangest mental state and one that Americans can least understand is the disappointment of the Germans over the Belgians' attitude toward them. After Belgium was overpowered, the German rulers could not understand why the Belgians would not recognize the Germans as their masters and cease to resist. This accounts to some extent, it seems, for the rule of frightfulness 1 "At von Bissing's Headquarters," Atlantic Monthly, August, 1917- A MORAL SENSE AND GOOD CITIZENSHIP 177 instituted in order to overwhelm the mind with terror. But this is another evidence that a man with a low moral sense cannot be a good psychologist. We know that an individual can fall so low that his standard of living is a peril to the community and his acts dangerous to the peace and welfare of his neighbors. But not until this war came did we suspect that an enlightened nation could really become an outlaw in the world of nations. Virtue a state of mind. Virtue is a state of mind. It is, therefore, not taught in the same way as arithmetic, spelling, or reading is taught, and those who expect to bring about a proper state of mind through requiring children to memorize moral precepts as they memorize other forms of knowledge will be disappointed. This method may aid the teacher in giving moral instruction, but it in itself is not moral instruction. In training teachers, therefore, and in fixing standards of qualification, we have relied too much upon the acquisi- tion of knowledge. The way to a proper will or a proper state of mind is still almost a closed avenue in the training of teachers. A conventional verbal statement divorced from the habit of mind and character of the individual has been at times almost the sole guide in fixing the qualifications of teachers. However, the new importance given to personality is an evidence that not the whole emphasis is placed on scholarship or knowledge, but that part at least is placed on the cardinal virtues or morality. Given a teacher with the right personality and the right attitude toward life, all other acquirements may be added. The first essential, therefore, is to secure the right mental habits, and this end is best accomplished, perhaps, 178 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY by the setting up of a moral standard by which to judge conduct. How high is it? How low is it? What is it? A good illustration. Perhaps one of the best examples of two radically different standards is found in the military orders of Lord Kitchener and the practices of the German army. Said Lord Kitchener, in a letter to his men: Be invariably courteous, considerate, and kind. Never do any- thing likely to injure or destroy property and always look upon looting as a disgraceful act. You are sure to meet with a welcome and be trusted, and your conduct must justify that welcome and that trust. Your duty cannot be done unless your health is sound, so keep constantly on your guard against excesses. In this experience you may find temptation both in wine and women. You must entirely resist both temptations, and while treating all women with perfect courtesy, you should avoid any intimacy. The horrors of German ruthlessness make this standard stand out in striking contrast, and it is the contrast that makes the standard so effective. The American standard. Our purpose in going to war was an evidence of a high moral standard a standard that the Germans could not understand. The same stand- ard was maintained when Cuba was freed and when the American army aided those of other nations in putting down the Boxer War in China. No conquest, no indem- nities, no increased material power, no protection of a special class, were desired, but the one aim was to make the world a safer and a better place in which to live. Such was the purpose of America in entering this war. Our soldiers were fighting for right and justice not only for Americans, but for people everywhere, and the nation should still educate the people to hate the acts of the Prussian rulers because they were unjust. This American A MORAL SENSE AND GOOD CITIZENSHIP 179 standard, therefore, should have a tremendous effect upon the children of America and the people of the civilized world. The schools, moreover, should be thoroughly moral both in the instruction offered in them and in the tone and standard of the institution. It is not an extreme criticism to say that the schools have been more or less unmoral that is, since religious instruction has been minimized, positive moral instruction has not formed a vital part of the school work. The schools must follow the example of the nation and emphasize a definite moral standard not only in the conduct of the pupils in the playgrounds, but in the emphasis given to instruction in the classroom ; and whatever standard of ethics is adopted by the school it should have the sanction of religion. The American standard has the sanction in America of all religious sects, including Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, and they fought zealously and cooperated patri- otically to make this standard prevail in the world. The righteousness of this standard appealed to the nations of the world during the war, and they have a right to expect the people of America to maintain as high a stand- ard during the period of readjustment following the war. One question therefore for every American citizen to ask is this : Am I guilty of any of the acts that have made the Prussians hateful in the sight of decent men and women? One question for each school to ask is: What is the moral standard of this particular institution? The standard of the church. The great value of a standard lies in the fact that it offers a gauge by which individuals or groups of individuals may measure them- selves. It is not the formal creed that gives the church its moral tone, but it is the standard of life as set by Jesus. I8o EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY The Sunday-school instruction and the weekly and semi- weekly sermons are constantly holding up to the individual this one standard in such a way that the individual must ask the question and answer it in the depths of his own consciousness: Is my life in harmony with the life and teachings of Jesus ? The morning exercises in school may be wholly unmoral. Reading a chapter from the Bible and repeating the Lord's Prayer or some other formal stereotyped petition may be wholly unreligious, especially if these exercises are held for the purpose of avoiding the criticism of the sectarian saints of the community. Some standard of excellence, some noble deed, some unselfish act, some patriotic service, held up each day, will draw the lives of the youth toward it. Most people know that when adults whose habits are supposed to be fixed go into strange communities where they may move about incognito, they are sometimes guilty of immoral or unlawful acts that they would never think of committing when in the presence of public opinion at home. Why? Because the social standard is so constantly held up in the home community that the people do not even think of doing an immoral deed. But in a strange community and in dealing with strangers, they too readily forget the standard. This is another evidence of the power of public opinion. The church sets a high standard, one surpassing pub- lic opinion, but one that the individual may carry with him while traveling incognito or in the presence of his neighbors. The standard, therefore, that has the most far-reach- ing influence is that which calls constantly for self- examination. A MORAL SENSE AND GOOD CITIZENSHIP 181 Illustration of a Chinese school. A certain Chinese school near Shanghai is famous for its good order, for the neatness of the students, for its clean and attractive sur- roundings, and for the self-government of the pupils. The master in charge was asked by an American the cause of such extraordinary results. Then the visitor was led to a large mirror-door near the entrance to the study hall, over which was printed a list of questions. The master, pointing to the questions, said that every student before entering the study hall was compelled to pause before this door, inspect himself thoroughly, and ask himself such questions as these, which he was required to answer in the affirmative before entering the room : Am I clean? Are my buttons sewed on? Am I prepared for the day's work? Am I fit to take a place with my companions, etc.? Boy Scout laws a good standard. One of the best agencies in moral instruction is the code of the Boy Scouts. It fixes the standard of a good Scout. Teachers would do well to use these laws as a standard for the boys of the school : 1. A Scout is trustworthy. 2. A Scout is loyal. 3. A Scout is helpful. 4. A Scout is friendly. 5. A Scout is courteous. 6. A Scout is kind. 7. A Scout is obedient. 8. A Scout is cheerful. 9. A Scout is thrifty. 10. A Scout is brave. 11. A Scout is clean. 12. A Scout is reverent. 1 82 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY Before he becomes a Scout the boy must promise: " On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my Country and to obey the Scout laws; to help other people at all times ; and to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight." Standard fixed for the soldiers. The teacher has much to learn from the methods employed by the nation to maintain a high moral standard for the soldiers. The World War was the result of two antagonistic ideals, two moral standards in the world, and the outcome will de- termine not only national boundary lines, but also which moral force shall rule the world. The moral standard of the soldiers was a vital matter from two standpoints in winning the war and in preserving right and justice in the world after the war. The nation, therefore, employed every possible welfare agency in order to preserve the well-being of the soldier chaplains from religious bodies, the Y. M.C.A., the Y.W. C.A., the Knights of Columbus, the Salvation Army, Jewish moral agencies, army and navy community workers, playground experts, leaders of music, theatrical agencies, moving pictures, and teachers of history and other subjects. The daily regimen of the soldier helped to stabilize his passionate or sentimental nature and to utilize his leisure. The reports from the camps therefore show that soldiers who had been in training three months were as a rule in a healthier state mentally and physically than when they left home. The soldier had a great task to perform, and it was necessary for him to keep himself in a fit condition. Hence all vicious resorts, such as saloons and gambling houses and houses of prostitution, were under surveillance in the cities near which camps were located, and soldiers A MORAL SENSE AND GOOD CITIZENSHIP 183 were forbidden to enter them. If they insisted after they had been challenged, the officer had orders to shoot. If such drastic measures are resorted to to protect soldiers in training for service, we may rightly ask the question: Why are such dens of vice permitted to grow up in a community? If theatricals and moving pictures and lectures of all kinds are strictly censored and carefully supervised for the soldiers, why should society as a whole not be pro- tected from the bold display of wanton women and beastly men parading on the stage, on the screen, on the bill- boards, and on the streets? The soldier was adjusting himself to a new social order, and a standard fit for a good soldier is likewise fit for a good citizen or a good pupil in school. Erecting a standard for the school. Just as right living should accompany making a living, so should moral direction accompany all classroom instruction. A serious objection may be raised against the method of teaching morals in school if it is made a special subject and set at a given hour and labeled moral teaching. Life is a unit, and the poise, the tone, and the character of an individual are formed out of all the forces at work. Truthfulness, fidelity, consecration to duty, justice, courage, industry, reverence, beneficence, clearness of vis- ion as to right and wrong, honesty, love, faith, charity, and good will are virtues that help to make an individual great. How are they combined in the characters studied in school? Which predominates? They are found in the home, the school, and the community, and the child should be taught to find them, to bring examples of them to school, and to compare individuals with the highest standard formed. 1 84 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY Every school can do this, and in doing such work the teacher has begun real moral training. Who are the men who stand at the head of any great movement? Who are the women to whom the public turns when the serv- ices of a great woman are needed? What qualities do they possess that make them acceptable teachers of men and women? The good is always found mixed with evil, and young people too often see only the petty vices of the great men, and strive to copy them much as simple slaves seem to copy the showy acts or manners of their masters. How then may teachers give moral aim to the work in the schoolroom? CHAPTER XXI THE MORAL AIM IN TEACHING Moral Values in Education The opinion prevails among many teachers that intellectual development is by its nature separate and distinct from moral training. Of all the evils in our schools this terrible mistake is pro- ductive of the greatest. The powers of the mind determine by their limitations all human action. There is no neutral ground. Every- thing done has a moral or immoral tendency Every act of the teacher, his manner, attitude, character, all that he does or says, all that he calls upon his pupils to do or say, develops in a degree moral or immoral tendencies. No teacher should say, "I train the intellect," and leave moral and spiritual training to others. FRANCIS W. PARKER, Talks on Teaching So far as I can ascertain schools of the olden time had in them a large amount of wholesome ethical training. Schools were unsys- tematic then; there lay no examination paper ahead of them; there was time for pause and talk. If a subject arose which the teacher deemed important for his pupils' personal life, he could lead them on to question about it, so far as he believed discussion useful. This sort of ethical training the hurry of our time has largely exter- minated. GEORGE HERBERT PALMER, The Teacher To consider moral values in education is to fix attention upon what should be the paramount aim. A schooling that imparts knowledge or develops skill or cultivates taste or intellectual aptitudes, fails of its supreme object if it leaves its beneficiaries no better morally. In all their relationships present and future, that is, as schoolmates, as friends, as members of a family, as workers in their special vocations, as Americans, as world citizens, the greatest need of our boys and girls is character the habitual disposition to choose those modes of behavior that most do honor to human dignity. HENRY NEUMANN, Moral Values in Secondary Education Moral values. Teachers have made the mistake of supposing that morality can be taught as the content subjects are taught. Morality is a state of being, an attitude, a manner of doing things, and not a content 13 185 1 86 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY subject. Arithmetic, geography, literature, etc., are sub- jects that have a specific content which is valuable as means to an end and which must be acquired before the end can be reached. It is not the word alone that teaches, but the living word, the word made flesh. For example, a minister's preaching is of small value if people have no confidence in him. On the other hand, a simple state- ment, a commonplace expression, of a man in whom people have great confidence outweighs the most profound utter- ances of a crook. But it is frequently the case that the teachings of great men are less effective in their home com- munity than abroad because of their human imperfections. How to teach moral values. Teachers, therefore, should not only seek to understand the moral values to be found in the conduct of students and in the subjects of the curriculum, but should seek to make them live. The one is the means, the other is the end, of moral instruc- tion. Having a standard of values, the teacher then should measure conduct by it. i. The conduct of students. One of the best means of discovering moral values is through cooperation in student management, which was discussed in chapter xii. This should form the basis of much of the moral instruction in school, since it offers very many concrete illustrations of right and wrong conduct that may form the basis of much discussion in school, and give the teacher opportunity to shape the ideals and develop the judgment of the pupils. There is a need, therefore, in every school for a period, perhaps a general assembly, for such discussion. The topics sometimes may follow the lines laid down in chap- ter xix. Some specific interest, some breach of school discipline, some new school ordinance, some patriotic cele- bration, may also furnish the subject. Pupils should be THE MORAL AIM IN TEACHING 187 encouraged to look forward to this period and to bring up topics for discussion. The students' council referred to previously serves this purpose. When is the best time to hold the general assembly? One plan is to use the first fifteen or twenty minutes of the school day, at which time a little perfunctory Bible- reading, a formal repetition of prayer or Bible quotations, and a song or two constitute the entire exercises unless the principal feels called upon to reprimand the students because of some infractions of the school regulations. The moral value of such an exercise is slight as a rule. Many superintendents, on the other hand, have learned from experience that perhaps the best time is thirty or forty minutes near the middle of the school day. The period should be long enough to permit devotional exercises, which should not be mechanical and given that they may be heard of men. It is a good plan where possible to have the ministers of the community conduct these devotional exercises. This practice will help to draw the ministers to the school. Moreover, music and current events and matters per- taining to the welfare of the school may be presented. Students should be encouraged to take part in everything that is planned for this period. The question of athletics, keeping the building clean, the health of the community, election day, good plays in the city, a great man coming to town, examples of fine conduct, or school regulation should be discussed fully. This period should serve as a clearing house for all matters of interest to the school, and if the teachers have an understanding of moral values it can be made the most profitable period of the day. It should be a time when the school clubs, the glee club, the literary clubs, and any other student organizations may 1 88 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY have the opportunity to appear in public for the enter- tainment of the student body and for the training that they individually may derive from it. 2. The conduct of the recitation. Every recitation offers some opportunity for calling out the judgment of pupils and for measuring deeds by the accepted standard. From the kindergarten to the last year, not only formal instruction in every subject in the curriculum, but the method of approach affords opportunities for teaching the cardinal virtues. And the teacher who seeks to set apart a special period in which to give instruction in right living and then neglects all other opportunities is in the same class with the individual who is pious one day in the week and either unmoral or immoral the other six days. Moreover, all such instruction will become more or less mechanical and lose its deeper significance unless the teacher herself has a keen sense of the difference between right and wrong. If she possesses this sense, such instruc- tion will not appear to be manufactured for a purpose, but will be spontaneous and incidental to everyday living. But how may the course of study be used in teaching moral values? Literature offers, perhaps, the best opportunity. In fact, the great stories, poems, essays, and dramas of the world are filled with a passion for the triumph of right and justice. The fairy tale, the myth, the fable, the allegory, the parable, the legend, and stories of heroes and heroines, both real and created, present the struggle between virtue and vice in such concrete forms that the teacher can hardly miss the aim, provided instruction does not close just with the mere ability to read or to reproduce the story. Nor does this mean that the literature period shall be given solely to discussions of moral questions. "The THE MORAL AIM IN TEACHING 189 literary work should first and last be enjoyed in the spirit that sends an adult to the theatre or to a novel by a favorite author for an evening's recreation. The char- acter may be never so fine, the sentiments never so exalted and valuable; but unless the pupils are really stirred, whatever moral stimulus the poem or story can afford will fail of its object." 1 But after the student has been stirred, such questions as these will lead the teacher to a higher aim : Why is the story great and why does it live? What is the character of the actors? Why does the child wish one character to triumph and another to fail? These and a number of other questions that follow in logical order bring out the cardinal virtues that exist in the world. The Ethical Culture School makes literature the basis of moral instruction, and the great stories of the world have been carefully classified and graded by some instruc- tors with a view to presenting the great life principles to the child in a concrete way. The teacher, therefore, should be a good story-teller, in order to bring out the deeper meaning of the literature, and she should keep in view not only the outlines of the story, but the character of the individual actors. History is directly concerned with forces that are both moral and immoral. But it requires a mature mind to understand the problems as they are presented. The one reason perhaps why so many young people dislike history is because of their inability to understand its deeper ethical significance. But next to literature, history offers the best field for the training of moral judgment. How has man advanced 1 Henry Neumann, "Moral Values in Secondary Education," Bulle- tin No. 51. Bureau of Education. 190 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY to his present stage? Why has the world been at war? Were the acts of a nation right or wrong? Was the policy of a certain teacher just or unjust ? Was the conduct of a certain woman heroic? What was the purpose of the great liberty documents such as the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, or the Monroe Doctrine? Biography is invaluable in teaching morality. Why is the man or woman considered great? Are they simply noted for one thing well done or for how they lived and served and led people? Why do we celebrate the birth- days of great men and great women? Compare George Washington and Frederick II of Germany, Hindenburg and Robert E. Lee, Kaiser William and Woodrow Wilson. Here greatness will shine out by contrasts. Who is the most useful man in your community and your state? Pictures of the good and great should hang on the school walls pictures of world heroes and of local and state heroes as well. The school should honor the men and women who have lived true lives, and the pupils should understand why they are honored. Current events afford an opportunity for giving moral instruction. The conduct of men and women, acts of the social group, proposed measures of reform all are discussed in the community and held up to view and meas- ured by the eternal standards of right, and praise or con- demnation follows the judgment. What are good manners ? What is perfect courtesy to all classes of people? Great ministers, renowned statesmen, and great school- masters have used current events in keeping the world straight. No first-class school can afford to omit current events. For how shall we pass successfully from to-day to to-morrow if we do not judge the acts of to-day by the best standards? THE MORAL AIM IN TEACHING 191 Every school, therefore, should subscribe for current periodicals, and their contents should be carefully studied and classified and used even in the literature or history classes. Music is also a very powerful agency in giving moral tone to a community. The old Greeks used to say with much truth that a good song will purge the soul of impurity. It will change the temper of a student body, and, as a soft answer turneth away wrath, so the right song will drive away dull care, freshen the soul, and make for righteousness. It is one of the most powerful agencies used by the church. Religious hymns, patriotic songs, old ballads, and the famous martial music of the times should be sung in school. Community singing has already been referred to, but it should be emphasized again here. The churches should be encouraged to give musical concerts during the week. Health should become a moral issue. There are two factors to consider in the preservation of health: (i) the sanitation and health of the community as a whole and the precautions taken by the individual to protect himself and the community from disease, and (2) the state of mind of the individual. The first has received considerable attention during the past few years. The school physician and nurse, clinics of various kinds, health officers and sanitary laws, all have given a new meaning and a new value to this subject in school. Since the subject was treated more fully in chapter xv, we need say nothing further here but this : For a community, through carelessness or negligence, to permit contagious diseases, which may be prevented with care, to lay waste the people should be considered a moral evil even as many crimes are considered moral evils. 192 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY This question, however, has been raised: To what extent is the health of an individual determined by his state of mind? It is well known that one may destroy the health of another by circulating evil or false reports about him. Moreover, a bad conscience or a bad state of mind may have the same result. The body is the temple of the soul, and thoughts, feel- ings, and acts have as much to do with building the body, perhaps, as food, air, and water taken into the body. It is demonstrable that the materials out of which the body is made cannot be assimilated properly if the spiritual forces are inharmonious and at war within. How do thoughts and feelings react on the body? A detective often detects a criminal by his manners or by the peculiar workings of his features, and a physician often tells the disease within by simply observing the face and expression of the patients. The physical and the spiritual are so closely related that they are constantly acting and reacting on each other. Anger and hatred make for hard, scowling faces and tense muscles; disrespect and greed breed sensuality, coarseness, and brutality; intemperance brings pain and weakness ; courage develops calm and determined manners, steady nerve, and poise; and wisdom and good will create fine facial expression, convincing speech, and confidence. The nervous system is the connecting link between the physical and the spiritual. Therefore a diseased nervous system may wreck both the body and the mind. This is why children should have plenty of sleep, should take physical exercise, should run and laugh and play and sing. It is why good stories, fine pictures, and agreeable exercises are valuable from the standpoint of health as well as of morals. The care of the body, therefore, is as much a moral problem as a psychological or sanitary one. THE MORAL AIM IN TEACHING 193 The ancient Hebrews made it a religious matter, and the Levitical laws make health one of the cardinal virtues. A cross, irritable teacher may do untold damage even to the health of certain pupils whose nervous systems are already unsound. Other agencies, such as athletics, pictures, hygiene and sanitation, the occupations of the people, manners and customs, business methods, etc., may be used in giving moral instruction. Wherever judgment is required, some standard is erected, and the greatness of a school depends upon how great and how practical is the standard that the teachers hold up. Justice, mercy, courage, temperance, honesty, industry, wisdom these are the cardinal virtues, and one purpose of all instruction should be to make them live in the world. Henry Neumann, in "Moral Values in Education," Bul- letin No. 51, Bureau of Education, emphasizes especially the value of household arts in giving moral instruction, and such topics as these are suggested: the home in history, social forces affecting the home, the responsibility of the consumer, cooperative societies in America and abroad, extravagance and thrift, beauty and health problems. Moreover, in discussing the importance of vocational guidance and vocational education he says: The main ethical consideration about any calling is the effect for better or worse which it exercises: (i) Upon the personality of the man who enters it, e.g., does it broaden his mind or cramp it? (2) Upon his fellow workers, e.g., what should "setting the pace for one's competitors" mean? (3) Upon the people who do the pur- chasing, e.g., compare educating the public taste with debauching it; and (4) upon the other callings with which his own is interrelated, e.g., the stimulus given to modern scientific labors by industrial progress, or the interchange between business and art in such fields as furniture making and advertising. 194 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY The ideal rewards of work should be given full honor in shaping the choice of a vocation. These consist of the opportunity to bene- fit mankind by the nature and quality of the commodities or the services offered and, equally important, the opportunity to develop intelligence and other attributes of personality through useful serv- ice. In a survey of the vocations, consideration should be given to the special temptations in each calling and to the endeavors that have been or should be made to improve the code of its ethics. The teacher should be especially alert for every instance in which a vocational group is trying to raise its standards; for example, the recent efforts of the Associated Advertising Clubs to banish adver- tisements of fraudulent medicines. Through biographies of leading figures in the various callings, pupils should study the effect that the work exerted upon the personality of the man. Public and school libraries may offer considerable assistance by collating material in magazines, books, and obituary accounts of leaders in several vocations. Much stress should be laid upon the qualities, particularly the moral qualities, essential to true success, and ways by which these may be cultivated. The quest of the Holy Grail. It has been the dream of man since the beginning to find the highest good, the most precious gift. In all ages and in all climes, he has set out on the quest. The Holy Grail, the symbol of the perfect, the pure, the righteous, the just, has been his lodestar, drawing him always upward and onward. The Knights of the Round Table, the chevaliers of the Middle Ages, the great and good men in peace and in war have gone in search of it. The soldier boys of America, from the Philippine and Hawaiian Islands, from Alaska, and from Porto Rico, as well as from the states of the Union, have been sent thousands of miles from home in the quest of the Holy Grail. Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, have been with them, and our faith is triumphant that, as they come marching home again, humanity after its long and perilous journey will be nearer the goal, and the world will be a safer place in which to live. The school must help to keep it so. CHAPTER XXII IDLENESS A FOE TO GOOD CITIZENSHIP A New Obligation upon the School The fact remains that in the lives of most men there has been a great loss of time and energy in the search for their place in the world's work. The main cause for this great economic loss may be laid at the door of our public schools. We have failed to inspire our youth with the necessity for an aim in life. We have held out the ideal of education as a means to professional careers, and have ignored the fact that the right sort of study in preparation for other careers is just as worthy and just as necessary as for those desig- nated by high-sounding titles Hence, of all the problems that have been placed upon the public schools for solution, there is none more difficult, more fraught with danger, or more full of splendid possibility than that of guiding each boy and each girl into the course of study or the kind of school that will best prepare them for that particular field of service in which they may be most truly successful. JESSE BUTTRICK DAVIS, Vocational and Moral Guidance During school hours and out of school, on mornings, afternoons, Saturdays, and during vacation all older children and youth should be encouraged and directed to do as much useful productive work as they can without interfering with their more important school duties. This productive work should be so directed as to give it the highest possible value, both economically and educationally. P. P. CLAXTON The whole nation shall be a team in which each man shall play the part for which he is best fitted Each man shall be classified for service in the place to which it shall best serve the general good to call him. WOODROW WILSON, Proclamation, May 18, 1917 One aim in education. One of the greatest human as well as social evils is idleness or improperly directed energy. The cause of this evil may doubtless be found in an improper social ideal. Happiness, the goal toward which humanity moves, is supposed to be found in a i95 196 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY state of ease and rest free from toil and care and respon- sibility. This is not only a social ideal, but it is likewise a religious ideal. No one knows what the ideal state after death is. But human experience gives abundance of proof that for a vigorous, red-blooded youth happiness is closely related to well-directed energy that gives satis- factory results. All conscious instruction, therefore, has ever had one of two aims in view. The first is to form the character of the youth in accordance with some ideal standard, and the second is to adjust the individual to some occupation and to induct him into some vocation whereby he may become self-supporting and contribute to the well-being of society. However, one defect in education has been that one aim has been stressed to the neglect or the exclusion of the other. The Puritans had a fine conception of the union of the two. When speaking officially of education, they usually coupled "learning and labor" together. There should be one aim in education to learn to live right while learning to make a living. Every man self-made. The school should emphasize this truth that the making of an individual is the result of his own self -activity. Every man is self-made. There is an erroneous conception that only the man or woman who struggled up from infancy through poverty and poor educational advantages to places of trust and power and renown is self-made. We should rather take another view of life in a democracy, namely, that every individual is self-made. When a child is born, society begins anew. All indi- viduals, regardless of birth, family, environment, or other conditions, must to a certain extent travel parallel roads, IDLENESS A FOE TO GOOD CITIZENSHIP 197 and the handicaps of wealth and family are sometimes as great as the handicap of poverty. Teachers would do well to study the lives of the men and women who have brought America to its present high plane in the world. The results will be valuable to both teacher and pupils. There still lingers in the world even in our democratic nation a vestige of that old divine right of kings that accredits the Lord with bestowing upon certain classes special privileges and upon other classes a lot of hardship and poverty and drudgery, and some are not yet quite willing to give the youth of the latter class a fair chance to make themselves. It is not the Lord's will that one class of people should forever dig and delve and slave for a privileged few and that another class should live forever in ease and luxury. But it is man's inhumanity to man that has brought about this condition. The world is still in the process of making itself, and society should say to every individual what Edward the Great of England is reputed to have said of his son, the Black Prince, at the battle of Crecy: "Let him win his spurs." The greatest evil. The greatest evil, perhaps, in society is idleness, since the idle, vagrant individual stops all forces within himself that operate in the proper making of the individual, and an idle class has the same effect upon society. Social workers have been confronted with the vagrancy evil since the beginning of history. The English Poor Laws and the vagrancy acts stand as grim monuments to the failure of civilization in this respect and to the inade- quacy of all educational systems. The world tried com- pulsory apprenticeship for two hundred years. Then it substituted the modern public-school system, but still the evil is present ; and during the war, when every nation I 9 8 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY was calling for workers at wages heretofore unthought of, large numbers of able-bodied young men, especially in our cities and towns, were living from morning until night not even earning their board and keep. Some of the earliest proverbs laid down by society are "Idleness is an evil," and "The idle brain is the devil's workshop," and "He that will not work shall not eat." Every society that has a recorded history passes the same verdict on idlers, loafers, and vagrants. Civil law, canon law, and natural law, all have been invoked with a mini- mum of success, and still the evil remains in one form or another. Every great educational reformer has attacked the problem. Sir Thomas More in his Utopia pointed out the evil and suggested compulsory training in some trade or vocation. John Locke in his scheme for education made training for a trade a necessary part of his scheme for the education of the youth of England. Rousseau made his whole philosophy turn on the same point. Pestalozzi constructed a new method and a new educa- tional practice by utilizing the occupations of the people in his education of the poor, and the reformers of to-day are no less insistent. When our public-school system was established, it was declared by its founders that education would banish ignorance, idleness, and poverty. It was then believed that knowledge of an evil would correct that evil. The trouble, however, seems to be in the nature of society as it is organized, and if this evil is to be corrected it must be attacked in every grade of society. A social ideal can be formulated and the school can help to attain it, but the problem will be solved only by the school and society working jointly. IDLENESS A FOE TO GOOD CITIZENSHIP 199 Lessons from the war. A valuable lesson may be derived from the war, since the success of the nation in putting into play the energies of such a large number of people who heretofore had been leading useless, idle lives is an evidence of what can be done in an emergency. 1. Work and cooperation. Work and cooperation became a social as well as a national ideal, and the finger of scorn was pointed at the individual who was leading a useless life. Never in the history of the nation have the idlers, the slackers, and the vagrants received such condemnation, and every individual who had a spark of pride or patriotism left felt an impelling force from within to become a partner in the great task. Even women whose social ideal had been to lead lives of ease and luxury and pleasure-seeking felt the impulse, and it is estimated that over a million women found a purpose in life and an opportunity to serve. Leaders of the nation social leaders, labor leaders, and leaders of industries emphasized the necessity of putting into play all the energies of all the people, not only to win the war, but to secure a sane and safe readjustment after the war. 2. Work or fight. The national slogan became "Work or fight." But still the unemployed, notwithstanding the great demand for labor, were so numerous that it was quite evident that distressingly large numbers of citizens had become so habituated to ways of idleness that they could not be reached by appeals to their pride or to their patriotism. The matter was so serious that the Provost Marshal General of the United States promulgated an amendment to the Selective Service Regulations, which required every man of draft age either to go into the army or else go to 200 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY work at some useful occupation, and a list of occupations for men of draft age was issued for the information of those concerned. This regulation is popularly known as the "work or fight" amendment. In the attempt to put the order into effect a host of idlers, grown men, strong men, were rounded up by the thousands. But still the question remains unanswered: Why do such men prefer idleness when the rest of the world desires employment? Many states, following the lead of the Provost Marshal General, passed stringent laws against idlers and loafers, and in most if not all the large towns and cities officers of the law were at work rounding them up. However, there is nothing new or original in these acts save the application to immediate needs. Every nation, as was said above, has at one time or another passed similar laws. The history of social evolution contains these landmarks. But idleness is not cured by the passing of laws against it. Citizens must act, and if the evil is cured it will be at the same price that is paid for liberty eternal vigilance and eternal cooperation. War has stopped the flow of emigrants from Europe. It has killed or disabled the laborers of the world by the millions. The demand for intelligent or skilled labor is great now, and it will be very great for many years to come. The old shiftless laborer lacking in courage, self-respect, and thrift must go. Vagrancy now is a national peril. The energy of every man and woman is needed. Before the war vagrancy was a source of much immorality ; after the war, especially when the soldiers are returning home and are being adjusted to ways of peace, it may become a much greater evil to society than it was before the war. It was ' ' work or fight ' ' then. But in the future what will be the alternative? IDLENESS A FOE TO GOOD CITIZENSHIP 201 How other vices are cured. Idleness is a vice, just as is drunkenness, or opium eating, or pistol toting, or tres- passing, or breaking one's contract. It should be attacked just as other vices have been attacked, by better teaching and by a ceaseless crusade preached against it, as well as by the force of the law. Too few warnings have been raised against this national evil. How have other vices been corrected? The history of prohibition is a good illustration. Just a hundred years ago prohibition societies were organized, and at a time when the evils of drunkenness were felt only by a few. But the evil of intemperance was preached from the pulpit and from the platform. The community conscience was aroused. Later, descriptions of the dangers of alcoholic drinks to the human body were incorporated in the textbooks and taught in school. State laws followed. Preaching and teaching were broadened. Finally physicians were moved to act. They declared that alcoholic drinks were not absolutely essential to the treatment of disease. Instruction in the schools was broadened, and thus by constant preaching and lecturing and teaching, enough of the nation was aroused to make prohibition popular even among selfish politicians. Then it began to sweep the country. As a result, the nation has amended its Constitution so as to be able to correct this evil. But the public conscience had to be aroused. Public opinion rules the world, and the world is safer to-day from this great evil than ever before, because of the force of public opinion, which is bought at the same price that is paid for liberty eternal vigilance and eternal cooperation. What, then, is the duty of the school? 14 LI3RARY CHAPTER XXIII THE SCHOOL MUST ATTACK THE PROBLEM OF IDLENESS Unify Learning and Labor There was once assumed a permanent division between a leisure class and a laboring class. Education, beyond at least the mere rudiments, was intended only for the former. Its subject matter and its methods were designed for those who were sufficiently well off so that they did not have to work for a living. The stigma attached to working with the hands was especially strong. In aristocratic and feudal countries such work was done by slaves or serfs, and the sense of social inferiority attached to these classes naturally led to contempt for the pursuits in which they were engaged. Training for them was a servile sort of education, while liberal education was an education for a free man, and a free man was a member of the upper classes, one who did not have to engage in labor for his own support or that of others. The antagonism in industry which was generated extended itself to all activities requiring use of the hands Strange as it may seem, the very notions of knowledge and of mind were influenced by this aristocratic order of society. The less the body in general, and the hands and the senses in particular, were employed, the higher the grade of intellectual activity. True thought resulting in true knowledge was to be carried on wholly within the mind without the body taking any part at all. Hence studies which could be carried on with a minimum of physical action were alone the studies belonging to a liberal education. JOHN DEWEY, Schools of To-morrow Treat idleness as a vice. Laziness is not the natural state of an individual. It is a vice and should be treated as such. But it is the most curable of vices if taken in time, and about the least curable when it becomes chronic, for when a man is once really sunk in laziness, he seldom rises out of it. It seems to be easier to cure a confirmed sot, or a professional burglar, or tuberculosis. One needs only to study a little child to see that inac- tivity is not the natural state. A healthy child is active 202 THE SCHOOL MUST ATTACK IDLENESS 203 from morning until night. It is out in the streets, under the house, in the woods, roaming the fields. Something within compels it to go. It is in the adolescent age that it dreams and sits around and ceases to become active. Methods of attack. The school, therefore, should be the first social agency to attack the problem, because children of school age are naturally energetic unless they are physically defective. Ministers and public lecturers, physicians and other professional men should periodically bring the seriousness of the evil to the conscience of the people. But the teacher should take the initiative, because the viciousness of idleness does not appear until after school age, and after the habit has been fixed. The dangers lurking in other vices appear at once while the habits are being formed. But this is not true of the habit of laziness. It is said that a group of loafers was carried before the officials of New York under the "work or fight" rule and many absolutely refused to engage in any productive employment unless they were placed in some office work where the physical exercise would be reduced to a mini- mum. They were habituated to ways of physical lassi- tude and bodily inertia. They had lost the compelling power from within. They were without will to act. i. Exercise the first remedy. This opens up the whole question of physical exercise in school, parks, and play- grounds for the children of the crowded towns and cities, and the need of proper supervision. An individual with a strong, vigorous body can hardly be lazy. But as society becomes more and more congested, as the spirit within is more and more distracted by the passing show, the signs of a degenerate self begin to appear. The idle class soon gravitates to the large cities. 204 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY A child that is physically active cannot suddenly become inactive if it is in good health. It is as much the duty, therefore, of the teachers to see that all the children, the boys and the girls, the primary and the high-school students, are physically active as it is to see that they are mentally active. It should be a part of the program of the boards of education, especially in the towns and cities, to see that parks are provided for little children and that playgrounds are constructed for boys and girls. More- over, athletic sports, outdoor games, and plays should form an essential part of every source of study and should take equal rank with mathematics or history or drawing or music or any other subject. The late William James has an essay on "The Gospel of Relaxation" in Talks on Psychology and Life's Ideals which every teacher should read. On page 204 he says: They tell us that in Norway the life of the women has lately been entirely revolutionized by the new order of muscular feelings with which the use of the ski, or long snow-shoes, as a sport for both sexes, has made the women acquainted. Fifteen years ago the Norwegian women were, even more than the women of other lands, votaries of the old-fashioned ideal of femininity, "the domestic angel," "the gentle and refining influence" sort of thing. Now these sedentary fireside tabby-cats of Norway have been trained, they say, by the snow-shoes into lithe and audacious creatures, for whom no night is too dark or height too giddy, and who are not only saying good-bye to the traditional feminine pallor and delicacy of constitution, but actually taking the lead in every educational and social reform. I cannot but think that the tennis and tramping and skating habits and the bicycle craze which are so rapidly extending among our dear sisters and daughters in this country are going also to lead to a sounder and heartier moral tone, which will send its tonic breath through all our American life. 2. Credit for home work. It is one thing for the school to talk about work and quite another to honor work in THE SCHOOL MUST ATTACK IDLENESS 205 such a way that the student is given an incentive to work. The school has neglected to reach into the community and give credit for patriotic work done by pupils. Here is a problem: Joe drives a milk wagon for his father's dairy. After school he rounds up the cows and feeds them. He has little time for study at night, because he must rise at four o'clock in the morning, when he begins to make his rounds again. He is honest, industrious, and punctual. He is required by the school, however, to carry the same number of daily recitations as all other students carry. Some- times when it is bad weather he is late at school or fails altogether to go. His report card for one month shows the following: English Failure Arithmetic Good Geography Passing Spelling Failure History Passing Deportment Good Tardy Four times Absent Two times Remarks: Indifferent in his studies and in attendance. The teacher's record shows that Joe's classroom work was satisfactory in only three studies arithmetic, geog- raphy, and history. One would judge from this report that he was a careless boy, inattentive to duty, and far below the standard in attainments. But quite the reverse is true. He works nearly six hours a day more than other boys in school. He is honest, punctual, reliable, and industrious. But he has too much to do. He is not a failure, but is without capacity to do twice as much work as is required of the others. The result is almost inevi- table. Such a school policy will cause him to hate work, 206 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY or hate the school. And this charge may be brought against the school, that unconsciously it discourages hon- est work necessary to the support of the family, that is just as helpful in making the boy as the school work. The teacher should have honored the outside work and should have encouraged others to do likewise. Joe should have been given credit for it, and he should not have been required to carry as many studies as those who do no outside work. The teacher should have discussed with him ways of becoming more efficient. All necessary work at home done by pupils should be given a high place on the honor roll of the school. The school by taking into account home tasks can very often make the school an aid to the home instead of a burden and a drawback. It can make a task that once seemed drudgery helpful in establishing right habits and it can dignify labor in the minds of all children. Such a policy would make a boy or girl proud of his work rather than ashamed of it. But how many students conceal the fact that they have to work at home because they are ashamed to have their companions know it, because the social ideal is out of harmony with home work? Moral leaders have too often taken an extreme stand against games and plays, because imitative work, petty incidental jobs, or tired men's recreation too often became major factors in shaping the lives of the youth. Mis- guided reformers would therefore prohibit tired men and women from engaging in their sports, but to eliminate these from the lives of the tired might be as injurious to them as laziness is to youth. 3. Study the vocations. Long before the student passes through the high school his mind begins to turn to some vocation. However, his opinions may change from year THE SCHOOL MUST ATTACK IDLENESS 207 to year. Few college graduates follow the occupation they had elected to follow in their high-school years. But this is an evidence that the child, even unaided by the school, is studying the occupations. What are the leading occupations of the community? What opportunities do they offer an individual in which to work out his destiny and attain his goal? There is scarcely an occupation in which some man has not achieved distinction Luther Burbank in the plant world, Edison in the electrical world, Goethals in engi- neering, William Booth in moral and religious leadership, Seeman A. Knapp in agriculture, and Samuel Gompers as a labor leader. Every worthy vocation has at one time or another afforded some individual an opportunity to achieve fame and distinction. The example of the direc- tors of the Young Men's Christian Association in providing vocational lectures for the young men is one that could be followed by the school with profit to all people of a community. Who are the men of the community that are succeeding? What virtues do they possess? Industry is always one of them. The leading industrial workers of a community should be invited to the school to discuss the advantages of their respective occupations. School gardens and home gardens have come to the front of late as a necessary war measure. But any helpful work that a boy or girl may do at home should be honored in school in such a way as to make it take equal rank with any work done in school. Teachers cannot have pupils discuss too often their home tasks, or their fathers' occupations, or occupations they would like to follow. The Bureau of Education, at Washington, D.C., has collected a great deal of information on home projects 208 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY showing how widespread is the tendency to give credit in school for work done at home and elsewhere. Child labor laws are essential. We cannot emphasize too strongly the need of such laws in order to save the child from heartless industries that would profit at the expense of child welfare. But while we are emphasizing this particular phase of this great social question, it is also necessary that we shall not put a premium on idle- ness. Just here is a very difficult adjustment to be made. 4. Part-time classes. In many of the larger towns and cities part-time classes have been organized by the school authorities cooperating with industrial institutions. The work is so arranged that students may go to school a part of the time and work a part of the time in some of the industries of the community. The principal in charge secures the employment for the students, and when they enter an industrial institution, it is not unusual for them to be placed first under an instructor in the employ of the business, whose duties are to instruct all new employees in the mysteries of the trade. Such a student may go to school a half -day and work a half-day, or he may attend school a week or two weeks and work the same length of time. Such students should be organized in relays so that classes may be conducted and the work carried on in the industrial institutions with- out interruption. Part-time classes might be organized also in rural schools in such a manner aa to keep students in school and yet allow them to spare some time to their parents who may need their labor. Some schools begin an hour earlier in the busiest seasons and close earlier in order to cooperate with parents. There never was a time when a higher premium should be placed on honest work, and, instead THE SCHOOL MUST ATTACK IDLENESS 209 of being a burden to the home, the school should reunite "learning and labor" in the educational world. Our compulsory school laws have nowhere been altogether successful. Could they not be more successful if the school would undertake to bring about the right com- bination of "learning and labor"? The amendment to the New York attendance laws of 1918 went so far as to say: A pupil in the public schools or in any state school or institution who is relieved from school work and is engaged satisfactorily in agricultural service during the present school year shall be given credit for the work of the present term without examination, on the certificate of the person in charge of such school or institution that his work therein, up to the time of engaging in such service, is satisfactory. 1 Some schools have the ungraded room for pupils who are unable to do the normal amount of work because of the home work required of them. Teachers should study all of these plans, and seek to honor labor in any line. 5. The boy cadet. In many of our large centers, school principals organize the boys during vacation into com- panies of boy cadets, and squads are sent out under proper guidance to work on farms harvesting grain, picking fruit and berries, plowing fields, or working in dairies. The Young Men's Christian Association and other organizations have interested themselves in the boy prob- lem in finding work for boys to do. The Bureau of Educational Training of New York state requests its representatives to seek employment for boys. All schools could organize classes in the spring of the year to pick berries or gather vegetables, and in the fall to gather fruit and other foods. This work might come under the head of part-time school work. 1 Amendment to School Attendance Law of New York State, Sec. 4. 2io EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY The time may be nearer at hand than teachers and prin- cipals suppose when teachers must report on the activities of boys and girls during vacation. 6. Use of old subjects. Nearly every subject in school can be made to aid the teacher in emphasizing the virtue of industry and the value of work in the making of the individual. Biography is of course one of the best aids. The men who have succeeded, who have become great, and whose deeds to-day stir the youth have been industrious men. It was their self-activity that gave them the strength to do. They have been hard, incessant workers, and the games and sports they have indulged in at odd hours have served as a recreation and enabled them to return to work invigorated in body and mind. Geography is also valuable as an aid in giving proper perspective. What are the occupations in the community that can be studied? In the state? In the nation? If students knew more of the possibilities of the occupations of the state in which they live, there would not, in all probability, be so many college students rushing into the overcrowded professions. Teachers in a farming community might have students make a study of farming as an occupation. The old-time composition on "The Superior Advantages of Rural Life over City Life" should give way to a sensible study of farming as a vocation. This applies alike to other occu- pations. An active child stirred by the possibilities of service and renown in a certain occupation is supplied with the best antidote for laziness. Agriculture, manual training, domestic science, and all the vocational subjects in school of course should be used primarily to give skill and open the vocations to the child. THE SCHOOL MUST ATTACK IDLENESS 211 English may be a valuable aid also in teaching the occu- pations of the community. Subjects for oral and written language lessons should be drawn continually from this field. History may also be an aid by showing the evolution of industries, the development of occupations, and the relation of the occupations to growth and welfare of the nation. A list of the necessary occupations during the war as outlined by Provost Marshal Crowder should be studied, and a list of the unnecessary ones should be carefully examined also. In every community there are successful men and women who could be induced to come to the school and tell the pupils how they succeeded and what oppor- tunities their several vocations offer to boys and girls. Farmers, mechanics, lawyers, manufacturers, engineers, etc. these could stir the youth with tales of heroism and high resolve. The responsibility of the school. To what extent is the school addressing itself to this problem of idleness and vagrancy ? With what occupations in a given community should the school cooperate? What is the greatest enemy to efficient labor? How do migrating workers, cheap lodgings, poor shelter, ill health, poor food, brothels, lack of continued responsibility, hinder effective work in the community? These are questions that our schools and colleges should emphasize: Has any study been made of the relation between school courses and failures in school on the one hand and with idleness and vagrancy on the other? Who can give the educational history of the idler and loafer and throw light on the question? Are the idlers 212 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY as a rule those whose mental lives were not suitable to or in harmony with the usual class routine of the school ? The great demand for labor has called the women from the home and the schoolroom. Large numbers of idle unmarried young women who refrained from engaging in any productive work on account of social inhibitions now find all barriers removed. They have as a result come into a larger freedon, and their world will broaden still more. The women, therefore, who have entered the vocational world to take the place of the men have come to stay. During the war it was a patriotic duty to be a worker in the nation. But now, when millions of soldiers are being returned to civil life, and when the supply of laborers may become greater than the demand, idleness and the vagrancy evil will become even more serious unless society is wiser in the future than it has been in the past. Preach a Crusade against Ignorance Preach a crusade against ignorance; establish and prove the law for educating the common people. Let our country men know that the people alone can protect us against these evils, and that the tax which will be paid for this purpose is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests, and nobles, who will rise up amongst us if we leave the people in ignorance. THOMAS JEFFERSON So our struggle in the schools, as it should be in our homes, is against ignorance, the old, ancient, inveterate ignorance with which every generation is born into this world, the ignorance which must be first overcome and then enlightened by effort, hard effort, repeated effort, wisely guided effort, not alone by the exertion of the teacher, but on the part of the student as well, that our young recruits may be trained, trained, trained into an alert, disciplined, irresistible army of knowledge. It is not an easy task, for we are wrestling not against flesh and blood, but against the unseen powers of darkness, darkness intel- lectual and darkness moral. It is, then, our part in the "immortal conflict," ceaseless and strenuous, "now going on and calling for marvelous vigilance" more loudly than ever. It is no place for undisciplined minds or wild theorists, still less for idlers, slouchers and slackers, and even less for false prophets dressed up in the uni- form of the army of knowledge. FRANKLIN K. LANE There are 5,500,000 illiterates in the United States and 700,000 of these men are within the draft age. There are, no doubt, many good Americans who cannot read or write the English language and many men who cannot read or write any language. But in a democ- racy which depends upon the information of its people for the con- duct of its government, there must be universal education in the language of its_ country. When this war closes we cannot carry on a campaign against tuberculosis among the people who cannot read today the rules of the food administration, nor will we be able to carry on a campaign to make the schoolhouse a co-operative mar- keting center among a people who cannot today read the circulars of the Department of Agriculture. WOODROW WILSON 213 214 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY The problem of illiteracy. The war has shown the leaders of America how careless they have been in matters of education and what perils threatened the nation through ignorance and illiteracy. There were in the United States at the outbreak of the war 5,516,163 persons over ten years of age who were unable to read or write any lan- guage. Over 4,600,000 of these were twenty years of age or more, a number greater than the population of the states of California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Delaware. The seriousness of the dangers to America from such a large number of illiterates did not dawn fully upon the leaders of this country until it was discovered that about 700,000 men of draft age were illiterate and that nearly 50,000 of these were actually in the army. Training camps for soldiers were not equipped for school work, but the burden of teaching the men to read the simplest English was laid upon the officers or others in the camps, because the schools had been too poorly sup- ported and organized to prepare the people to meet a great emergency. Educational problems. Three educational problems confronted the nation, and the teachers everwhere should at all times be conscious of them: i. How to reach all children of school age of every com- munity in order to eliminate illiteracy from the next and all succeeding generations. Jefferson's injunction to "preach a crusade against ignorance" is more necessary to-day than ever before in the history of America. Most states have some form of compulsory school law; but all the children are not yet in school. Child labor is still an unsolved problem. IGNORANCE A FOE TO GOOD CITIZENSHIP 215 2. How to reach the adult illiterates of this generation. Even before the war many states had become aroused over the number of adult men and women who were unable to read and write. Night schools, and in many instances day schools, have been organized for them. In North Carolina, for example, schools for adults have become a regular part of the state public-school system. In the moonlight schools of the southern states father and son may be seen attending school together both illiterate and both trying to learn to read the farm paper or the Bible. 3. How to reach aliens and children of aliens and instruct them in the use of our language, our laws, our institutions, and our ideals. Tens of thousands of foreigners have come to America and settled in communities that have become more foreign than American. They have their schools. But their children, before the war, were in some instances not even taught the English language. They read periodicals published in some foreign language. They sang the national songs of their native land and never heard in school the American patriotic songs. "It is hardly conceivable, and yet it appears to be true, that the great majority of otherwise well-informed Ameri- cans were ignorant of these conditions until they learned that whole contingents drafted into our national army could understand commands and orders only when these were expressed in a foreign language sometimes even in the language of our principal enemy" (from A National Program for Education issued by the National Education Association). Examples of foreigners in the army learning English. President John H. Finley, of the University of the State 216 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY of New York, gives a picture of foreigners in the army learning to use the simple military terms in English: In the mess hall where I sat with a company of the men of the National Army, a few small groups were gathered along the tables learning English under the tuition of some of their comrades, one of whom had been a district supervisor in a neighboring state and another a theological student. In one of those groups one of the exercises for the evening consisted in practicing the challenge when on sentry duty. Each pupil of the group (there were four of Italian and two of Slavic birth) shouldered in turn the long-handled stove shovel and aimed it at the teacher, who ran along the side of the room as if to evade the guard. The pupil called out in broken speech, "Halt! Who goes there?" The answer came from the teacher, "Friend." And then, in as yet unintelligible English (the voice of innumerable ancestors struggling in their throats to pronounce it), the words, "Advance and give the countersign." So are those of confused tongues learning to speak the language of the land they have been summoned to defend. What a commentary upon our educational shortcomings that in the days of peace we had not taught these men, who have been here long enough to be citizens (and tens of thousands of their brothers with them), to know the language in which our history is written! Dangers to the nation. "Ignorance is not a cure for anything." It is a hindrance to progress and a constant menace to the liberties of a people. A community cannot progress faster than public opinion can guide it. It falls a prey easily to the wiles of its enemies, and it may viciously smite the hand that would rescue it. Horace Mann saw this when the foundation of our modern school system was laid, and the patriotic leaders of America have ever been conscious of the dead weight that ignorance lays upon a people. The seriousness of this danger was not realized until the World War laid bare the heart of the world and pre- sented the forces of evil at work. As has been said before, IGNORANCE A FOE TO GOOD CITIZENSHIP 217 the collapse of the Italian army in 1917 was due almost solely to the ignorance of the Italian soldiers. They fell an easy prey to German propaganda, and discontent was worked up by German spies who knew the weak centers of the nation. The ignorance of the Russians made them, even more than the Italians, a prey to German propaganda. The greatest achievements of Germany in this war have not been the result of great military power, but of that perfidi- ous propaganda preying upon the ignorance and credulity of the unsuspecting until they were caught in the inex- tricable toils of its wily machinators, who boasted of their evil, gloated over the desolation and ruin they had spread, and rejoiced over the confusion that came to the innocent because, for the time, they had made Prussian perfidy triumph over the Golden Rule. Even before America entered the war, the same minions of evil were at work in this nation, and the German rulers relied upon the German centers in America and the Ger- man agents to keep America disorganized and unpre- pared even to defend herself, their hope for ultimate success being based upon the organized propaganda that was spread to catch the ignorant, the illiterate, and the morally stunted. However, the American leaders imme- diately after war was declared began an educational cam- paign through publicity bureaus, lecture courses, and special schools in the army and in selected centers, to offset the educational campaign of the Germans, and the fine spirit that is guiding the American nation and the world to-day is the result largely of this educational campaign. These dangers should arouse the teachers of every community to see that the children are taught and that 15 218 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY adults have the opportunity not only to learn to read, but to read such literature as will make them better Ameri- cans. They should study current periodicals and books from the library with this end in mind. What illiteracy at home means. Many soldiers who entered the army illiterate have returned literate. It was necessary for them to learn to read. But how about the large number of illiterates at home and those who will come after them? They cannot read the Bible and learn for themselves the plan of salvation and instruct their children in the Sunday-school lessons. They cannot read the health bulletins and cooperate intelligently with the health authorities in eliminating tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and other contagious and infectious diseases. They cannot read the children's school books and be an aid to their own offspring in their intellectual develop- ment, and in this respect their children cannot have equal opportunities with other children whose parents can read. They cannot read the farm papers and take advantage of all improvements in agriculture and the monthly suggestions for making the land yield the best and pay the most. They cannot have the same advantage intellectually as the literate in protecting themselves from the tricksters, the patent-medicine man, the street hawkers, the wily peddlers, and that host of sharpers who fatten on the ignorance and superstition of the people. Misdirected education worse than illiteracy. The war has taught the world that more evil may result from the wrong kind of education than from illiteracy. It were IGNORANCE A FOE TO GOOD CITIZENSHIP 219 far better that people remained in simple ignorance than be forced to develop along lines at variance with funda- mental principles of right and justice. The German army is noted for having the smallest percentage of illiteracy of any army in the world. But never has a nation, in ancient or modern times, shown more disregard for the sacred rights and duties of a human being. If half the stories of German barbarities are true, German ethics and education are a curse to the world. In Part I it was shown how the education of the German people was forced along lines that made that nation an outlaw among the nations of the world. However, German Kultur cannot be destroyed by ignorance. An illiterate people merely afford a good soil in which to plant German Kultur. The only remedy is an education of a better type. Patriotic German Ameri- cans who have been in this country for a decade or more, and the result of American propaganda, are proofs of this remedy. It is the duty of American teachers, therefore, to teach Americanism first a sense of justice, a quickened moral sense, regard for the rights of others, love of liberty and fair play, law and order, and the duties of a citizen to his community. Teachers in the past have said that it makes little difference what a child reads, provided it learns to read; that the art of reading is the great aim. We know now that it does make a vast difference what the child reads during that period before judgment has been developed. Learning to read is absolutely essential, of course, but every teacher should accompany the art with a purpose. Perhaps the greatest defect in teaching is its purposeless character. The state and the nation therefore should 220 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY have a double purpose in promoting education: (i) to eliminate illiteracy, and (2) to make good citizens. How allied countries are safeguarding the schools. In spite of the great burden of financing the war, England is now planning for educational developments "that would have been deemed Utopian four years ago." That nation is perfecting measures to remedy the long neglect of the children by encouraging the establishment of nur- sery schools for all children under six, medical inspection, physical training, and a reasonable chance of living a healthy life. Moreover, it has become aroused over the old question of child labor and the neglect of the youth of high-school age, and is in favor of a national system of instruction in which the state shall pay half the cost of each approved school, thus preventing any unfair burden of local taxes. Not even France, so brutally hit by the war, is neglect- ing her schools. At tremendous sacrifice with 30,000 teachers called to the colors, she has kept her lower schools in full operation. Even along the line of battle, within the sound and sometimes within the range of the artillery, the schools have remained open and at work (A National Program for Education}. The following message from war-stricken France was sent to America through President Finley: Do not let the needs of the hour however demanding, or its burdens however heavy, or its perils however heart-breaking make you unmindful of the defense of tomorrow, of those disciplines through which an individual may have freedom, through which an efficient democracy is possible, through which the institutions of civilization can be perpetuated and strengthened. Conserve, endure taxation and privation, surfer and sacrifice, to assure those whom you have brought into the world that it shall be not only a safe but also a happy place for them. IGNORANCE A FOE TO GOOD CITIZENSHIP 221 We must educate all the children. We have in the past cared too little for the education of those children whose parents belong to the tenant class in the country and the industrial workers of the towns and cities. There are too many people still living in this country who believe, and believe intensely, that the Lord intended one family to belong to a ruling class and another to a serving class. We have held too tenaciously to a part of that ante-bellum philosophy that would make an autocrat of the landlord or capitalist and a servant out of the tenant or laborer. Wherever the autocrat exists, whether in Germany sitting on a throne or in America presiding over an industry or a plantation or as the head of labor organizations, we have the basis of tyranny. "We have been thinking too long that education is a sort of ambrosial nectar for the select few." Millions have been left outside the pale. Now these millions have been thinking of bread riots and race riots and strikes and lockouts. This very condition produced by the autocrat of wealth is creating another autocrat of labor, and we have already had the two in this country lining up their forces for a deadly combat. The great revolutions in Russia and Germany and Austria-Hungary, now that the autocrat has been removed, are both a sign and a prophecy. The children of America must be educated in a way worthy of a democratic and a responsible citizenship. Teachers, therefore, would do well to study again the motives of the founders of our Republic and take an inventory of our educational achievements. According to statistics compiled from no less than 386 American cities, only 56 out of every 1,000 pupils who begin the first grade of the elementary school complete the high school. 222 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY The teacher might with profit ask whether, if the schools had been doing in times of peace what the government in time of war was doing to train the men and women to get ready to make democracy triumphant, the attend- ance in school would be better, and whether education would be more effective and illiteracy less glaring. Where schools have failed. The courses of study have been designed for the few who can take a literary educa- tion, and the number that learns most from the great physical world is neglected. The boy who can concen trate his powers in some mechanical work is not given equal credit with the boy who is good in the liberal arts. It is well known that the boy who can concentrate his mind on a page of literature ranks highest, as a rule, in school. A twenty-year-old boy in a certain rural district applied for admission into a state high school. He desired to study only mathematics, history, and English. He had to work in the afternoons and could remain in school only one year. Therefore, he did not wish to take Latin. But the teacher refused to permit him to enter unless he took all the subjects of the grade, including Latin. Such a teacher is a relic of bygone days that are gone never to return, let us hope. What a pity that such a teacher has floated down to us to-day like some fragmentary detritus from an ancient geological age! How many teachers have not yet realized that the school is for the child and that any organization or course of study so arranged as to exclude a child has no right to exist. Moreover, in the classification and promotion of pupils, teachers and supervisors have thought more of the organi- zation and the machinery of the school than of the welfare of the individual pupils, or rather, they have thought that IGNORANCE A FOE TO GOOD CITIZENSHIP 223 the welfare of the pupil is conserved just as the machinery of the school is perfected. A few years ago a student who had had only three years' formal schooling before entering was enrolled in Trinity College. When he appeared for admission into one of the city schools, he was eighteen years of age, and the principal assigned him to the first grade because he could neither read nor write. But he stopped after a few days and one of his neighbors taught him to read and write. Once more he applied for admission into this school, and this time he was put in the second grade. Again he stopped, and he did not enter any school again until three years later, when he entered the second year of the high school from which he graduated in three years. It was not the school, but the youth's great ambition, that kept him from remaining an illiterate. This, of course, is an extreme case, but how many students have been deprived of an education because of the inelastic graded system? This subject, however, has been dis- cussed more in detail in Part II. Not only the grading, but the course of study, may hinder or promote educational progress in a community. How, then, may the school improve its content so as to justify to the world its value as an instrument in removing illiteracy, in promoting industry, in creating a respect for law and order, in quickening the moral sense, and in molding public opinion to strive against the great evils of idleness and vagrancy? CHAPTER XXV The School and the Community The urgent demand for the production and proper distribution of food and national resources has made us aware of the close dependence of individual on individual and nation on nation. The effort to keep up social and industrial organizations, in spite of the withdrawal of men for the army, has revealed the extent to which modern life has become complex and specialized. These and other lessons of the war must be learned quickly if we are intelligently and successfully to defend our institutions. When the war is over, we must apply the wisdom which we have acquired, in purging and ennobling the life of the world. In these vital tasks of acquiring a broader view of human possi- bilities the common school must have a large part. I urge that teachers and other school officers increase, materially, the time and attention devoted to instruction bearing directly on the prob- lems of community and national life. Such a plea is in no way foreign to the spirit of American public education or existing practices. Nor is it a plea for a temporary enlargement of the school program appropriate merely to the period of the war. It is a plea for the realization, in public education, of the new emphasis which the war has given to the ideals of democracy and to the broader conceptions of national life. WOODROW WILSON in a letter to school officers, August 23, 1917 The problem of the school. Since the school is one medium through which the child's contact with the out- side world is regulated, the teacher should be acquainted with the strongest forces at work "in the great human hive outside the school." Moreover, the course of study, which is really a social product, should be supplemented and enriched by illustrations and topics drawn from the present, everyday world. 224 COMMUNITY AND NATIONAL LIFE 225 How to utilize these agencies so as to direct the energies of pupils and make them self-reliant and self-supporting how to utilize the soil, the moisture, the trees, the animals, the air, mechanical forces, occupational agencies, and all the physical and spiritual forces of the world of to-day in the development of an individual and in giving proper direction to his increasing energies this is the problem of the school. The teacher should remember that most textbooks are out of date. They are written after life has been lived. Therefore it is impossible for them to contain the life of the present. Hence the necessity for teachers to study the present. Re-education of the disabled. The problem of the disabled is more acute to-day than ever before because of the thousands of disabled American soldiers who are returning home unable to pursue their accustomed voca- tions. The national government, therefore, is perfecting ways and means of giving the blind and crippled and otherwise disabled soldiers a new education that will make them self-reliant. The old school is inadequate to these new demands and cannot serve as a guide. Hence America is turning to Canada and to France and to Eng- land for guidance. In those countries, where the number of disabled is so enormous as to cause the greatest concern for the future, a new form of education is being worked out. All the vocations are studied with a view to finding those that the blind, the armless, the legless, and the nervous wrecks may be trained to enter and in which they may find joy and peace and a life made happy because of a service they may perform. Even before the war the schools of America were being directed more and more along vocational lines. But the 226 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY lack of properly trained teachers, and of a knowledge of what was needed, and of funds for carrying on the work, made our vocational schools fall far short of even pre-war needs. Aside from the need of funds, the greatest hin- drance perhaps was the old school curriculum that seemed to hold the teachers to the past and directed their energies along lines that were dangerously near a form of useless scholasticism. Teachers therefore need to take a new view of the curriculum in order to formulate a new aim. It is not too much to ask of every school that it shall undertake the study of at least one vocation that is dis- tinct in the community. The school curriculum. For many years our common- school curriculum has been growing more extensive and complex. We have passed from the old simple group reading, writing, and arithmetic to more than twenty- five studies, which by gradual accumulation have held a more or less independent place in our courses of study. And while the names of the subjects remain the same, the content is constantly changing and enlarging. Teachers to-day would hardly be able to solve the arithmetic problems of a century ago. They would be amused at the contents of some of the geographies and histories. They could not use the science that was taught a hundred years ago except to entertain their pupils with its strange concepts. Even the literature that was taught in school when our great grandfathers lived is unlike the literature of to-day. This is merely another proof of the assertion that the curriculum is always in a process of being made. It is the product of a society which is constantly undergoing changes, and the teacher who holds exclusively to the past and ignores the demands of the present is out of COMMUNITY AND NATIONAL LIFE 227 harmony with the age. But, above all, such a teacher fails to-day to utilize material that may be exceedingly valuable in giving the youth of to-day the right perspective of life and that may aid the nation in the education of the disabled soldiers. But what are some of the more vital subjects of the curriculum that need to be enriched with new material drawn from the community? i. The old course in nature study inadequate. The old course in nature study that delighted children for a while by simply analyzing a leaf, or flower, or seed should be changed to bear on the present social problem of produc- tion. Nature study in the past has been too pedantic or academic. Such courses as "the life history of the morning-glory," which at one time occupied a whole semester, is an unpatriotic course. Food production has given a new purpose, a real pur- pose, to nature study and agriculture, and it should constitute the heart of all outlined courses in these sub- jects. Every syllabus, therefore, that has not been remade around this vital subject since the war began is open to the charge of being to a greater or less extent a slacker syllabus. Nature study, agriculture, and that part of geography that treats of soils, plant growth, production, and dis- tribution of food may be combined and treated under one head the school and home garden. United States School Garden Army. The formation of the United States School Garden Army, inspired by United States Commissioner of Education P. P. Claxton, and recently called into activity by the President, is an attempt to mobilize the children to help meet a food emergency in order that the future may be safeguarded against want. 228 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY There is no excuse for the failure of any school in Amer- ica to cooperate in this movement. The United States has been divided into five sections, namely, Northeastern States, Southeastern States, Central States, Southwestern States, and Western States, under regional directors. Since the close of the great war, nearly two million children have already enrolled in the School Garden Army, according to reports from the United States Bureau of Education, as follows: Northeastern States, 400,000; Southeastern States, 250,000; Central States, 600,000; Southwestern States, 500,000; and Western States, 150,000. In every county of every state and territory in the Union there are men and women who are able to aid the teacher in planning a school garden. What is good for one section is not good for another section. But the teacher has at hand sufficient human agencies to help in this matter. The School Garden Army has already begun to mobilize. It is only a part, however, of that larger movement to encourage the right kind of instruction in food production. It is not to take the place of school gardens, but to serve as a means of organizing the children for still greater service along these lines. The great question for each teacher to answer is this: How is my school aiding in food production? Enlistment sheets and cards, as well as the insignia, will be furnished by the United States Bureau of Educa- tion, Washington, D.C. Further information may be had on application to the Bureau of Education, 118 Pension Building, Washington, D.C. The accomplishments of the School Garden Army during the war were remarkable. Twenty thousand acres of unproductive lots were covered with productive COMMUNITY AND NATIONAL LIFE 229 gardens, hundreds of thousands of parents became inter- ested in the school garden movement, and over fifty thousand teachers received valuable instruction in gar- dening through leaflets sent out from the National Bureau of Education. No other movement in history promises so much in aiding the " back-to-the-soil " movement as this. Miss Julia C. Lathrop says of the Garden Beautiful: Every child has a right to a garden. The art of the vegetable garden has never been cherished in this country and it will be a great gain if we learn something of the nicety of culture which the exquisite gardeners of the world from Belgium to Japan so well understand. As the school garden movement develops I trust that not only food but flowers will be produced, because "the beautiful is as useful as the useful." A generation growing up with a real skill in gar- dening will possess additional safeguards for vigorous health and another source of pleasure and recreation. 2. The teaching of agriculture inadequate. The Smith- Hughes Act (1917) provides federal aid for teaching agriculture and certain other vocational subjects. In some states, however, the nature of the agriculture taught is so bookish and so impracticable that not nearly all of the federal apportionment was applied for in 1918. The schools could not meet the requirements, or, if they could, teachers and patrons knew too little about the pro- visions of this act or they were too indifferent to bestir themselves. One demand that has not been successfully met is in the making of provisions for a school farm doing general farm work under supervision and carrying on a specific home project. It seems that, after years of experience in the teaching of agriculture, the home project plan offers the fewest obstacles and the greatest possibilities. 230 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY Professor David Snedden, of Teachers College, Columbia University, suggests that the most successful as well as the most valuable plan of teaching is the "problem- project plan," involving a specific problem, for example, in crop production, soil management, dairy production, or farm management. 3 . Animal husbandry. It has been only within the past few decades that the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has received much support from the rank and file of the people. Veterinary surgery is a modern pro- fession. This war, however, has demonstrated the neces- sity for greater care and pains in dealing with animals. In former wars the horse was merely an incident, and no attention was paid to him if he was wounded. However, the supply of useful animals is rapidly decreasing. During the war hospitals for wounded horses were built, and every contending army had its animal hospital staff with a supply of veterinarians aided by civilian auxiliaries after the manner of the Red Cross. Such precautions are extending to other useful animals, and one subject every child should study in school is this: How to prevent and cure diseases of animals. The pig clubs, the poultry clubs, and the sheep clubs are aiding somewhat at this point. Extension agents have learned to preserve the health of animals and to improve the stock, and there is no child in either city or the country who should be wholly ignorant of these things. Hence the necessity of making the extension work a part of the school work. One of the most valuable animals for boys and girls to study is the cow. There are not enough milch cows in the world to-day, and milk is so high in cities that poor people are unable to buy it for their babies. Thousands COMMUNITY AND NATIONAL LIFE 231 of children are undernourished because of the scarcity and high price of milk. Every school, therefore, espe- cially in the villages and rural districts, should seek to increase milk production by preserving the cows, by studying how to provide food for them, by studying the best type of milch cow, and by encouraging the preserva- tion of all the calves that give promise of making good milch cows. The supply of fats for the world's needs has been con- siderably reduced. The devastated areas of Europe must be restocked with fat-producing animals from Amer- ica and other countries not wrecked by this war, and the school can be of great aid to humanity by laying greater emphasis on animal husbandry. These are topics that children of the cities as well as the rural districts may study with profit. From the geographies they may learn the great food centers. Where are to be found the best milch cows, the best gardens, the largest supply of food-giving animals, etc.? What is the cost of distribution? Who is the profiteer and why is he denounced so thoroughly to-day ? 4. The old method of treating geography inadequate. The world is changing so fast to-day that the teacher who confines himself or herself to the geography texts and follows the book page by page without drawing material from the present-day world is a slacker. Most geographies treat of the industries of the people. But none can treat of the industries of the home com- munity as fully as is necessary for the children. Only the teacher can do this. The Bureau of Education has been publishing a series of Lessons in Community and National Life as an aid and a guide to teachers. These should be studied. In order to illustrate the need of 232 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY drawing a great deal of the geography material from the community, the topic of the "Flour Mill" is presented. A boy visits a flour mill and learns what he never before had dreamed, that a whole army of experts is employed in the industry farmers who produce the wheat, railway operators who transport it to mill and to market, great storage plants or elevators, experts in manufacturing the grain in the mill, expert salesmen and accountants, wholesale and retail grocers, bankers who supply the money for large business, the United States mail that facilitates business all these cooperate in such a way that society is bound together by business ties. Skill is needed in the business. But in order that society may hold together harmoniously, character and integrity must be found in every unit. In this vast circle of industries, let one man be dishonest, or a con- scienceless autocrat, and he is likely to wreck the whole. Moreover, let one man do shoddy work or be in- efficient, and the whole business may fail. Thus one large industry shows the need of honesty, industry, skill, obedi- ence to order, and right and justice in the management. Teachers may find other types in the community. The cattle industry is a good one. Children will be greatly interested in following the cow from the pasture to the stockyards, then to the several markets where shoes, beef, and other products are produced, and in the final distribution and consumption of these articles. The cotton mill is another good topic. Wool, coal, and iron may be treated in a similar way. In each case, however, the pupil should be led to see that three forces above all others hold society together and make for happiness in the world efficient workmanship, personal integrity, and good management. COMMUNITY AND NATIONAL LIFE 233 The World War was the result of a lack of the second element. Never before has mankind reached such a state of efficiency. Never before has there been such cooperation and such interdependence. And at this time, when the growth of the brotherhood of man should keep pace with the development of efficient workmanship and the increasing interdependence of nations, one nation lacking in integrity threw the world out of joint and pro- duced vast disorder. We have no clearer lesson of the helplessness of mankind in the midst of industrial effi- ciency alone. The bond that holds society together is after all a moral bond. 5. The old domestic science inadequate. The war has demonstrated that much of the domestic science taught in school was too impractical and did not reach those people who needed it most. But it has been proved that even a teacher in a one-room school can teach domestic science in a practical way that carries new life into the school. The homes may be used, mothers will cooperate, and the results of the work at home may be brought into the school and discussed and made the basis even of language work. Schools may have a minimum equipment, such as an oil stove for cooking and a few supplies for sewing. The one great trouble in the past has been that domestic science has been taught on the plane of the more pros- perous families in order to enlist their cooperation. Since their children give little or no aid in cooking and sewing at home, the home life in many cases has not even been affected by this subject, and those most needing it have been neglected. Many home-economics teachers in England lost their positions as a result of the war. This has proved a 16 234 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY blessing, for many began catering as a profession, and as a result they aided the nation in making food substitutes, and the whole kitchen economics has been revolutionized. American families were asked to modify many of their domestic habits, and teachers in the future must give greater aid to the home at this most vital point. Many features of the Junior Red Cross should be con- tinued in the schools. Knitting and sewing for the sol- diers had a distinct social as well as practical value. But this work should convince the teachers that sewing and "first aids" in preserving health may become per- manent features of every school and a vital factor in the regeneration of a community. 6. The old courses in civics inadequate. Since the war began, many states have enacted laws directing that pro- visions must be made in the public schools for training in the duties of citizenship. Seventeen states are requir- ing civics of all high-school pupils, and in every state, per- haps, graded courses in civics have been outlined for the elementary grades. The terms used to indicate the phase of civics taught are "Training in Citizenship," "Municipal Affairs and Social Industries," "Community Sanitation," "Current or Local History," "Community Civics," etc. In each case the idea is to draw the lessons from community and national life. Although there was already an awakening along this line before the war, it was found exceedingly difficult in places to arouse the people during the war and enlist their cooperation. A writer in the National Municipal Review says that from 2 per cent to 10 per cent of the people take an active interest in public affairs; from 10 per cent to 20 per cent are actively interested because COMMUNITY AND NATIONAL LIFE 235 they want something for themselves; and there remains 70 per cent of indifference. How many people fail to take any interest in election in every state? Some of the larger cities are taking steps which should be followed by others. Newark, Cincinnati, and New Orleans, especially, publish pamphlets dealing with their own history, community life, and public affairs. The Citizens' Book of Cincinnati and The New Orleans Book have attracted attention. The general plan is to compile in one volume the history of the city, statistics of population, and the facts about health, police, fire preven- tion and extinction, education, art, music, and recreation. Every town and village could follow this plan and modify it to suit local conditions. The first essential is a sense of the importance of one's duty toward the community and the government, and a willingness to contribute one's proper share. Hence the necessity of looking upon the pupil as a citizen while he is in school and giving him an opportunity to render service to the community by drawing much of the sub- ject matter for the school from the community. A new interest has been created along this line since war was declared. Many new textbooks have been published. They are being published even now. Teach- ers should select as a guide one in which directions are given for arousing civic consciousness in the lower grades. Then a formal text for pupils may be used after about the sixth or seventh grade. But the community should be the basis even for this subject. The work may center around some community interest. An epidemic of typhoid fever first formed the basis for the work in one community. In Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, malaria was so severe that the 236 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY national government, the state government, and the local government united in their efforts to rid the community of the dangerous mosquitoes. The school followed every step in the investigation and made it the leading subject in school while the survey was being made. The fact that malarial victims were reduced from 1 7 per cent of the population to less than 2 per cent is ample justification for the interest manifested by the pupils. The water supply, the milk supply, food products, the building and loan association, the preservation of law and order, the work of boards of charity and employment bureaus, are of sufficient importance to the community to guarantee a deep interest on the part of the pupils. From the study of the immediate community the interest may be carried over to the study of government, and by the last year of high school students will be prepared to understand the functions of government. But first of all the teacher must understand them. So many books are appearing just at this time that in every community of teachers a committee should be appointed to study the new books as they appear and make reports to the teachers. A teachers' library on civics might thus be accumulated. 7. How other subjects may be enriched. Nature study, agriculture, geography, health, and domestic economy were perhaps affected most by the war. But there is no subject that was not affected and that may not be enriched by the use of material drawn from the community. The history of the community could be studied and written by the school. It may include traditions and legends, the story of the first settlement, lives of prominent men who have made the community and who have gone from the community, the history of industries, what the COMMUNITY AND NATIONAL LIFE 237 community did toward winning the war, the prosperity of the people, the history of the school, the churches, and places of historic interest in or near the community. Subjects for composition may be derived from the community : why Mr. B is a successful farmer, how Mr. A cultivated wheat or cotton, how Mr. C manages a dairy, how Mrs. D prepared the best bread, or made the best quilt, or prepared the best jelly for the fair, how a city is governed, how a state is governed, how a store is con- ducted, and the moral forces of a community. Many of the problems of arithmetic may be drawn from the community. 1. How much profit is made on an acre of cotton or wheat or corn? 2. What is the cost of governing a town or city and the source of revenue? Is it running into debt? Can it do still more for the community? 3. What is the cost of building streets or roads? 4. What is the cost of putting running water into the homes of rural districts? 5. What is the cost to a community if twenty working men are sick one month with typhoid fever? 6. Is the building and loan association beneficial? 7. How much is saved in a year by economy if 20,000,- ooo homes save one slice of bread a day and each slice weighs one ounce? 8. How much labor will it require to replace the wealth that is lost by fires if $100,000,000 worth of property is destroyed annually. Make the computation on the av- erage salary of laborers in the community. 9. What does it cost every man and woman in the United States if $600,000,000 is lost annually from care- lessness and neglect ? 238 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY 10. How much per pupil enrolled does it cost to run the schools of the city ? How much are other communities or other cities of like size paying for pupils enrolled ? 11. How much does it cost to maintain law and order in the community? Then what could be saved in money alone if all people lived by the Golden Rule? 12. How long would it take a renter to buy the land he cultivates if he borrowed the money from the Federal Land Bank and paid on the loan only the amount of the rents each year? The literature might embrace the speeches of President Wilson, Mr. Lloyd George, and other great leaders of the day. French schools teach President Wilson's speeches and the aims of the war, and many city schools of America use them also. Moreover, the literature might include good editorials, strong descriptive articles, or good maga- zine stories taken from current literature. Even in teaching rhetoric many instructors use para- graphs of good editorial writers as a guide. As was said in chapter xv, teachers should study the vocations of the community and draw from them as much material as possible. Factories, stores, shops, farms, commerce, all have something of value for the school. If the nation finds in them a means of reclaiming the dis- abled soldiers, teachers may find in them a means of reclaiming the wayward youth or of stimulating to greater activity the pupils of the school. In these and many other ways a live teacher may make the old subject in school glow with a new life, for life creates life, and life more abundantly is the great need of the school. PART IV AIDS TO TEACHERS The Changing Curriculum No man, or group of men, however learned and expert, can draw up an educational curriculum that shall be good for all times and places. With changes in social, moral, and industrial conditions, new values appear and old values disintegrate and often vanish entirely. The basis of the curriculum changes continually with the progress of society. The children of to-day need to know many things which were unknown to anybody a generation ago; they need to have certain kinds of skill to form certain habits of life and of thought that could not have been anticipated by their fathers, and even the virtues change in their content if not in their basic principles. MILLER, Education for the Needs of Life CHAPTER XXVI THE LIBRARY AND GOVERNMENT AIDS THE LIBRARY The Wise Attitude of a Teacher Every teacher has methods and devices of presenting material to his or her classes. The experienced teacher behaves skillfully in the presence of a class because all the details of procedure have been tried, and those which proved successful have been retained. The inexperienced teacher is clumsy in his methods, just as is any novice in dealing with an unmastered social situation. There is no necessity of being one-sided in this matter. The successful teacher will ultimately have both knowledge of the sub- ject matter and methods and devices of presenting the subject matter. If he is lacking in either, he will be in just that degree inefficient. There can be no doubt that a properly balanced appre- ciation of both is the sane and wise attitude to assume. CHARLES H. JUDD, Introduction to the Scientific Study of Education The library movement. How many teachers in rural schools or in city schools know how to use a library? How many know what books are most helpful in teaching children of the lower grades and in supplementing the subjects of the grammar- and high-school grades ? These questions have been asked at a number of teachers' meetings, and the lack of training in or attention to this subject seems to be serious. In every town or city of any considerable size a library, in all probability, may be found in or convenient to the school. In most of the states provisions have been made for supplying small but fairly well-selected libraries to the rural schools. The library movement is a result of the social pressure on the school to make life more endurable 241 242 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY and instruction more profitable in the school. However, it came before the teaching profession generally was ready to use it. Normal schools, teacher- training classes, institutes, and reading circles have not yet afforded suffi- cient training to give teachers a large idea as to what books are helpful, how to select books and periodicals for differ- ent grades of children, and how to use them both in the classroom and in the community. Every association either of city teachers or of rural teachers might have a permanent committee to study the school library and make recommendations each year as to the best books to be used in the grades, what new literature is available, and where it can be found. How a librarian may aid. A librarian may be of the greatest aid to the teachers in many ways. The librarian of one of the Seattle schools, says Popular Education, has a cardcase at one end of the room, brimful of teachers' helps, which she has prepared with the aid of a large lever-operating paper knife on her desk. With this knife she cuts from magazines and books collected from many sources pictures, articles, poems, jingles, rimes, songs, games, and every other bit of material that teachers might need as supplements to their daily lessons or special programs. All the material is mounted on beautifully color-toned cards and looks as if it might have been prepared by a commercial house making a specialty of such work. This material is classified according to countries. A teacher studying Italy, for example, can take from these cardcases to her schoolroom pictures illustrating almost any phase of the subject she wishes to present, and work to supply almost any need she may have. This material is returned at a certain time just as books would be. THE LIBRARY AND GOVERNMENT AIDS 243 Another classification is made for holiday and special programs. Any teacher, whether of private, Sunday, or public school, playground or settlement worker, may sit down at these cases and select work for a varied program or for a special day or season in a very short time. It is then ready to pass out to the children without further work by the teacher and in a form which suggests care in handling to the child who receives it. One city superintendent keeps the current magazines circulating among his teachers in the following manner: A slip containing reference to important articles is pasted on the front of each periodical and it is turned over to a teacher at once. "She reads it, or such portions of it as may be of interest to her, writes her name in the space indicated, and passes it on to another teacher, who in turn does the same thing. This enables us," says the super- intendent, "to be sure that the magazines are in circu- lation. At the end of the year when they are returned to the office I can start them all over again among those teachers that have not read them." In certain live rural districts teachers send marked copies of articles found in the current periodicals to patrons of the community, requesting -that they give the teacher their opinion of the value of the articles. Some- times these articles deal with farming, or improvements in machinery, poultry raising, or matters of general interest. In certain schools in which no regular librarian is employed, the principal provides the teachers with a list of books suitable for use in the respective grades. In addi- tion the teachers are asked to make a list, not a library list but one which could be of use to the teacher or the pupils, and an effort is made to secure such lists during the year. 244 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY Many schools have a pupils' reading circle. Sometimes its work is outlined by the state department of education. But even this is of small value unless the teacher in charge understands the value of the books and how to direct the child's reading. The need in the rural schools. It frequently happens in small districts where teachers do not appreciate the value of the library that the books are defaced or lost. In some schools coming under the writer's notice no records of the books belonging to the library could be found ; in others not a book had been in use in the school during the teacher's term of service in the community. Most states have the traveling library in one form or another. But how many teachers know the needs of the pupils and the young people of the community well enough to make an intelligent selection of books? Teaching will never become what it should be until teachers know how to use the library. This is true of the city schools as well as of the rural schools. Knowing how to go to the library for assistance is the first and simplest evidence that the teacher has skill and initiative sufficient to go beyond the textbook for educative material. If the teacher has never learned how to correlate the library with the textbook, how can anyone expect that same teacher to perform the more difficult task of correlating urban or rural activities with school activities? The shortest step for the teacher to take is from the classroom to the library. The longer step is from the schoolroom to the community. It is time that teachers everywhere were taking their first step in order that they may be able to take the longer step with confidence. Normal schools and teacher-training departments in colleges and universities are recognizing, more and more, THE LIBRARY AND GOVERNMENT AIDS 245 the importance of this work and are providing library courses for teachers. Moreover, recommendations are now being made in some states which, if carried out, will require of teachers a ten weeks' course in the selection, care, and use of books, intended to put teachers in sym- pathetic touch with the use of the library. GOVERNMENT AIDS Aids to the study of the war. A notable feature of the recent World War was the extensive appeal to public opinion by all the nations involved. There is no excuse, therefore, for ignorance, on the part of any portion of our population, of the causes of this war and of the issues involved. Never before have all parties to a conflict so readily published their diplomatic correspondence, never before have diplomats hastened to publish their memoirs and diaries before a contest ended, and never before have governments expended such vast sums on propaganda. For this phenomenon there is a twofold explanation: First, nations can no longer conduct a successful war without thoroughly acquainting the people who support the war, and the soldiers who must bear the brunt of the righting, with the causes and aims of the war. Reason, therefore, has a larger influence in the world than ever before, and since 1914 there has been a constant appeal to its verdict. The second explanation concerns the importance of morale, cooperation, and zeal among both civilians and soldiers. This could be aroused and main- tained only by the dissemination of information. The importance of this factor is realized when we recall that the collapse of Russia and the Italian reverses in 1917 were due to a failure to inform the average man, civilian 246 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY and soldier, of the issues at stake and of the policy of the government. On the other hand, in England, France, and America, where the imparting of information to the plain people was seriously undertaken, the morale was not broken. The government of the United States secured the coop- eration of two agencies in collecting and disseminat- ing this information. One was the National Board of Historical Service, an organization of university and college teachers of history financed by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; the other was the Committee on Public Information, a government bureau. The National Board prepared a series of essays, addresses, and other material pertaining to the war and its issues, and these were given free to the public in the form of pamphlets through the Committee on Public Informa- tion. The pamphlets were issued in three groups: "Red, White and Blue Series," "War Information Series," and "Loyalty Leaflets." The "Red, White, and Blue Series." The "Red, White, and Blue Series" forms a good course in history for teaching. These numbers may be found in all public libraries and should if possible be in every school library and should also form a part of the history course for stu- dents. The series is as follows : 1. How the War Came to America. Contains, as the title indicates, the causes of the war. Moreover, it con- tains President Wilson's address to the Senate, January, 1917, in which he stated why America must take part in "the great enterprise," and the address of April 2, 1918, in which he asked Congress to declare war. 2. National Service Handbook. The story of how the nation of a hundred million people was organized for war. THE LIBRARY AND GOVERNMENT AIDS 247 3. The Battle Line of Democracy. A book of 133 pages containing selections of prose and poetry dealing with the war drawn from every nation of the allied countries. 4. The President's Flag Day Speech, with Evidence of Germany's Plans. 5. Conquest and Kultur. The aims of Germany told by the means of logical arrangement of statements from the rulers. 6. German War Practices. Part I. Treatment of Civilians. How Germany treats the civilian popula- tion of conquered territory, and what treaties were signed by Germany pledging the protection of noncom- batants. 7. War Cyclopedia. A handy compendium of informa- tion concerning practically every event, man, slogan, or issue relating to the war. 8. German Treatment of Conquered Territory. This is Part II of German War Practices. Includes a story of the destruction of Louvain and other "wanton destruction." 9. War, Labor, and Peace. Some recent addresses and writings of the President. 10. German Plots and Intrigues in the United States during the Period of Our Neutrality. By E. E. SPERRY (Syracuse University) and WILLIS M. WEST (University of Minnesota). Attempts of German official agents dur- ing the period of our neutrality to stir up troubles and commit crimes in the United States with a view to embarrassing the Allies and aiding Germany. These may be had free with the exceptions of Nos. 2,3, and 7, for which charges are made of 15, 15, and 25 cents, respectively. "War Information Series." The second series issued by the Committee on Public Information is the "War 248 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY Information Series." It included the following numbers when this information was secured: 101. The War Message and the Facts behind It. 1 02. The Nation in Arms. 103. The Government of Germany. By CHARLES D. HAZEN (Columbia University). 104. The Great War: From Spectator to Participant. By ANDREW C. MCLAUGHLIN (University of Chicago). 105. War of Self Defense. By Secretary of State ROBERT LANSING and Assistant Secretary of Labor Louis F. POST. 106. American Loyalty. By American citizens of Ger- man descent. 107. Amerikanische Burgertreue. (A German transla- tion of the preceding pamphlet.) 108. American Interest in Popular Government Abroad. By E. B. GREENE (University of Illinois). 109. Home Reading Course for Citizen Soldiers. Pre- pared by the War Department. no. First Session of the War Congress. Compiled by CHARLES MERZ. in. The German War Code. By G. W. SCOTT (Colum- bia University) and J. W. GARNER (University of Illinois). 112. American and Allied Ideals. By STUART P. SHERMAN (University of Illinois). 113. German Militarism and Its German Critics. By CHARLES ALTSCHUL. 114. The War for Peace. By ARTHUR D. CALL, Secre- tary of the American Peace Society. 115. Why America Fights Germany. By JOHN S. P. TATLOCK (Stanford University). 116. The Study of the Great War. By SAMUEL B. HARDING (University of Indiana). THE LIBRARY AND GOVERNMENT AIDS 249 117. The Activities of the Committee on Public Infor- mation. This series is sent free to all citizens upon application. As the title indicates, the publications treat especially of German government and German ideals. The Govern- ment of Germany by Professor Hazen, of Columbia, is a masterly exposition of the German government, showing definitely why there was not democracy in the German Empire and why there could be none under the old regime. More closely related is Scott and Garner's German War Code, in which the German code is contrasted with war manuals of the United States, Great Britain, and France. A study of Nos. in, 113, and 116 will give a good insight into German efficiency in its relation to human freedom. "Loyalty Leaflets." The "Loyalty Leaflets" consist of short addresses published in little pocket leaflets and sent free upon application. They include the following numbers : 201. Friendly Words to the Foreign Born. By HON. JOSEPH BUFFINGTON, Senior United States Circuit Judge of the Third Circuit. 202. The Prussian System. By F. C. WALCOTT, of the United States Food Administration. 203. Labor and the War. PRESIDENT WILSON'S address to the American Federation of Labor at Buffalo, N.Y., November 12, 1917. 204. A War Message to the Farmer. PRESIDENT WIL- SON, January 31, 1918. 205. Plain Issues of the War. By ELIHU ROOT, ex- Secretary of State. 206. Ways to Serve the Nation. A proclamation by the President, April 16, 1917. 207. What Really Matters. By a well-known news- paper writer. 17 250 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES BUREAU OP EDUCATION Agricultural Instruction in the High Schools of Six Eastern States. By C. H. LANE. The six states dis- cussed are Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. The treatment of the subject in each of these states includes courses of study and equipment, improvement of teachers in service, home projects, agricultural clubs, libraries, special features, etc. The School and the Start in Life. By MEYER BLOOM- FIELD. A study of the relation between school and employment in England, Scotland, and Germany. Educative and Economic Possibilities of School-directed Home Gardening in Richmond, Indiana. By J. L. RANDALL. The contents embrace the growth of garden promotion in recent years, how home gardens were obtained, the work of elementary- and high-school pupils, relation of school garden to juvenile crime, and effect on civic duty and city pride. The Massachusetts Home-Project Plan of Vocational Agricultural Education. By R. W. STIMSON. A detailed account of part-time work in agriculture, productive farming as educational projects, school projects, and other farm work, parents pledging cooperation, prizes and other home projects, home projects suitable for vocational agricultural schools, kinds of project knowl- edge, project records, fruit growing, bee keeping, poultry keeping, sheep and goat husbandry, vegetable growing, swine husbandry, ornamental plants, etc., and suggestions to teachers. Public School Classes for Crippled Children. By EDITH REEVES SOLENBERGER. Embraces history of schools THE LIBRARY AND GOVERNMENT AIDS 251 and special classes for cripples, need for special buildings and special courses, why children are crippled, food and care of cripples, special courses, practice in Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Detroit, and Baltimore. A Community Center What It Is and How to Organize It. By HENRY E. JACKSON. The contents embrace the schoolhouse as a community forum, home and school league, the community bank, cooperative exchange, how to organize community centers, officers and constitution. Vocational Guidance. Contains papers presented at the organization of the Vocational Guidance Association, Grand Rapids, Michigan, October 21-24, 1913- The following topics are discussed: the larger social, economic, and educational bearings of vocational guidance; prac- tical, scientific, and professional phases of vocational value; vocational guidance within the public school; how shall we study an industry for purposes of vocational and educational guidance? Americanization as a War Measure. The report of a conference called by the Secretary of the Interior and held in Washington April 3, 1918, containing addresses of Franklin K. Lane, George Creel, Will Irwin, P. P. Claxton, and others. The Readjustment of a Rural High School to the Needs of the Community. By H. A. BROWN. Colebrook Acad- emy of New Hampshire is taken as a type. Its aim, its buildings, its different departments, its garden, its faculty, the apportionment of the work, the administration, and the progress of study are treated. The pamphlet is well illustrated. Activities of School Children in Out-of-School Hours. By C. D. JARVIS. Treats of the employment of chil- dren during vacation, nature of the employment, earnings 252 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY and kind of employment, why children leave school, home gardening as a substitute for the common forms of employment, recommendations. Music Education in the United States. By ARTHUR L. MANCHESTER. The contents embrace an historical development, beginnings of former music education, music in schools and colleges, nature and scope of subjects, illustrative curriculum, courses of study, past and present tendencies. Schoolhouse Sanitation. By WILLIAM A. COOK. A study of the laws and regulations governing the hygiene and sanitation of schoolhouses, state control, the site, the water supply, toilets, protection against fire and panic, lighting, cleaning and disinfecting furniture and equip- ment, and a bibliography. Three Short Courses in Home Making. By CARRIE ALBERTA LYFORD. Treats of a home economics library for the rural school, and gives twenty lessons in care of the home and school, twenty lessons in cooking for the rural school, twenty lessons in sewing for the rural school, and figures. Important Features in Rural School Improvement. By W. T. HODGES. Special reports from rural superinten- dents to the Bureau of Education dealing with admin- istration and supervision, instruction, improvement of teachers in service, self-grading of teachers, improvement of building, grounds, and equipment, socializing the school, and miscellaneous notes. The Teaching of Community Civics. By J. LYNN BARNARD, F. W. CARRIER, ARTHUR W. DUNN, and C. D. KINGSLEY. Report of a special Committee on the Reor- ganization of Secondary Education. Part I discusses aims and methods in teaching community civics, who is the good citizen, stages in developing good citizenship, THE LIBRARY AND GOVERNMENT AIDS 253 the place of community civics in school program, specific aims, methods in teaching, and appreciation of principles. Part II contains suggested treatment of the element of welfare health, protection of life and property, recrea- tion, education, civic duty, wealth, communication, transportation, immigration, charities, correction, how governmental agencies are conducted and financed. Part III contains bibliographical suggestions. Agricultural Teaching. Contains papers presented at the fourth annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Agricultural Teaching, Novem- ber u, 1913. These topics are treated: home project work, courses of study in agricultural colleges, scope and purpose of agriculture in secondary schools, report on use of land in connection with agricultural teaching. Consolidation of Schools and Transportation of Pupils. By A. C. MONAHAN. A history of the extent of the con- solidation movement, state legislation, transportational arrangements and costs, costs of consolidation, educa- tional advantages, some types of consolidated schools in Kentucky, Michigan, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Washing- ton, Arkansas, Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Library Books for High Schools. By MARTHA WILSON. A list based on the Minnesota school library list for high school, 1913-14: (i) classification for school library general works, philosophy, religion, mythology, soci- ology, science, useful arts, fine arts, literature, and history; (2) classification for agriculture agriculture, soils, plant husbandry, field crops, horticulture, forestry, animal husbandry, dairy farming, other agricultural industries; magazines for teachers and school libraries ; general refer- ence books. Agriculture and Rural Life Day. By E. C. BROOKS. Material for observance of special days, history of man's 254 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY struggle for food, application of science to agriculture, men influential in improving agriculture, our domestic animals, our leading agricultural products, a study of our forests, appropriate songs and selections. Summer Sessions of City Schools. By W. S. DEFFEN- BAUGH. Includes a history of summer school terms, number of high schools having summer terms, number of elementary schools having summer terms, reports of different cities, financial savings, all-year schools, what children and parents say, progress, health, teachers, expense, and course of study. Moral Values in Secondary Education. By HENRY NEUMANN. Treats of the report of the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education appointed by the National Education Association, the importance of moral aims in education, problem of distinct courses in education, moral values in pupil activities, importance of interpreting experiences and suggesting new ideas, ethical values in the various studies, and the teaching staff. Training in Courtesy. By MARGARET S. McNAUGHT. A discussion of the importance of instruction in manners in America; what constitutes good conduct cleanliness, neatness, care of public property, conduct at school, what to do and what not to do, conduct at home, common courtesies, manners at the table, how to behave in camp or at a picnic, general rules of conduct and good manners dramatized. THE FLAG Proper display and use of the Stars and Stripes. The proper display and uses of the American flag are controlled, not by specific laws, but by military regulation and usage. The following rules have the sanction of the government : i. When the flag is being raised, it should fly free during the act of hoisting. It should never be rolled up and THE LIBRARY AND GOVERNMENT AIDS 255 hoisted at the top of the staff before being unfurled. When used as a banner, the union should fly to the north in streets running east and west, and to the east in streets running north and south. It should always fly from the top of the mast except in case of a death, when it may fly at half-mast. 2. When the flag is lowered, it should not be allowed to touch the ground, nor the deck of a ship, nor the floor of a room. It should be taken down slowly and with dignity, and should never be permitted to trail in the dust. The flag should always be raised or lowered by hand, and not by any mechanical device. 3. When the flag is used as a decoration, it should not be hung where it can be contaminated or soiled easily. Nor should it be draped over chairs and benches for seat- ing purposes. No object or emblem of any kind should be placed upon it or above it and no nails or spikes or pins should be driven through it. When colors are desired for decorative purposes, use red, white, and blue bunting. Always let the flag hang straight. 4. When the flag is passing in parade or in review, the spectators should if walking halt, and if sitting arise and stand at attention and uncover. 5. When the national flag is displayed with state or other flags, it should be given the place of honor on the right. International usage forbids the display of the flag of one nation above that of another with which it is at peace. Such an act is considered an insult in time of peace. When the flags of two or more nations are dis- played, they should be on separate staffs of equal size and on the same level. 6. When the flag is no longer fit for use it should not be used for any secondary purposes, but it should either be laid away to be kept as a valued relic or should be 256 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY privately destroyed in a way wholly lacking either in irreverence or in disrespect. 7. The flag should not be permitted to fly at night. Only in three places in America does the national flag officially fly both by night 'and day over the east and west fronts of the National Capitol and over the adjacent House of Representatives and Senate Office Buildings. When the Stars and Stripes floats from the flagstaff, from sunrise to sunset, it indicates the presence of the President in Washington. Likewise, when it floats over the Senate and House of Representatives, it indicates that those bodies are in session. 8. Congress has provided by an act (1905) that a trade mark cannot be registered which consists of or comprises "the flag, the coat of arms, or the insignia of the United States, or any simulation thereof." Moreover, an act was passed in 1917 providing penalties for the desecration, mutilation, or improper use of the flag within the District of Columbia. The several states have similar laws against the desecration or misuse of the flag. 9. When pupils are given instruction in regard to saluting the flag, this pledge is generally used: "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice or all." While the pledge is being repeated the students stand with the right hand palm downward, parallel to the fore- head, until the word "flag" is reached, then the arm is extended toward the flag palm upward and this position is maintained until the pledge is completed. The National Geographic Magazine, October, 1917, is devoted entirely to a study of the flags of all countries and their proper use. It is from this number that most of the above facts were obtained. THE INDEX Absentee landlordism, 120 Age of responsibility, 157 Agriculture, changes desirable in the teaching of, 229 Aids to teachers, 239-256 Albert, King, reference to, 48 Aley, Robert J., quoted, 152, 154 Alsace-Lorraine, 30 Americanism, 8, n, 16, 45 ff., 50 fruits of, 8 ff . Animal husbandry, changes de- sirable in the teaching of, 230 Arbitration, policy of the United States, 21 Arithmetic: changes desirable in the teach- ing of, 149 enrichment of the study of, 237 Arnold, Felix, quoted, 80 Arnold, Thomas, quoted, 164 Autocracy, 6, 25 ff., 35, 70 ff. and democracy, struggle be- tween, 26, 35, 71 in government, 25 ff. in school administration, 31, 70 ff. Ayers, Leonard P., quoted, 84 Betts, George Herbert, quoted, loo, 175 Biography: as a means of teaching moral values, 190 as a means of teaching respect for law and order, 163 as a means of teaching value of industry, 210 Bloomfield, Meyer, quoted, 77 Boy Scout code, 181 Brooks, E. C., quoted, 23 Brumbaugh, Martin G., quoted, 115, 142 Bryce, James, quoted, 2 Bureau of Education, publica- tions of, 250 Business/analogy between school administration and, 76, 88 Butler, Nicholas Murray, quoted, 65 Cadets, 209 Caldwell, Otis W., quoted, 103 Carranza, President, quoted, 49 Chadsey, Charles E., quoted, 84 Children, needs of, in the com- munity, 136 Church, standard of, 179 Citizenship : a moral sense necessary to good, 1752- basis of, I52ff. granted to all nationalities In the United.States, 19 257 THE INDEX Citizenship (continued) : idleness a foe to, 195 ff. ignorance a foe to, 213 ff. moral sense necessary to good, 175 ff. Civics: as a means of teaching respect for law and order, 162 changes desirable in the teach- ing of, 234 Clapp, Henry Lincoln, quoted, 89 Classroom: democracy in, 92 cooperation in, 97 need of a new aim in instruc- tion in, 147 ff. Claxton, P. P., quoted, 195 Clay, Henry, quoted, 15 Cobb, Irvin S., quoted, 60 Committee on Public Informa- tion, 56 publications of, 246 ff . Community: betterment of the, 116 cooperation of, for war work, 59 directing the energies of the, 133 ff- methods of cooperation in, 133 ff- needs of children in, 136 needs of men in, 138 needs of women in, 137 organizing for better leader- ship, n8ff. strength of, in the United States, 17 Community and national life, lessons drawn from, 224 ff. Community center, 119, 131 Community cooperation, 17, 59, 133 ff- Community leadership, 108 ff. need of, 109 organizing for, 1 18 ff. Composition, subjects derived from the community, 237 Conduct of students, 186 Conservation of food, 140 Consolidation of school districts 122 Constitution of the United States, purpose of , n, 15, 16 Cook, A. S., reference to, 85 Cooperation: in making course of study, 84 in reading circles, 85 in school management, 80 ff . ; phases for study, 93, 95 ff., 1 86 in the classroom, 97 in the community, 17, 59, 133ff. in student management, 95 ff . in the United States in pre- paring for war, 52, 59, 199 of school and community, 17, 72, 111,117, 119, 130, 133 ff. of school and fraternal organ- izations, 129 of school and religious forces, 127 Council of National Defense, 53 County agents, need of reforms in work of, 126 Course of study, making of, 84 Court procedure as a means of teaching respect for law and order, 166 Crafts, Wilbur P., quoted, 128 Crane, Frank, quoted, 51 THE INDEX 259 Credit for home work, 204 Crime, juvenile, 155 Current events as a means of teaching moral values, 109 Curriculum, changes desirable in 226 ff. Davis, Jesse Buttrick, quoted, 195 Declaration of Independence: origin of doctrines found in, 1 1 quotation from, 9 Democracy, 6, 51 ff., 67 and autocracy, struggle be- tween, 26, 35, 71 community leadership in a, io8ff., iiSff. how made fit, 51 ff. in educational institutions, 63-144, 74, 80 ff. in government, 1-62 in prison management, 90, 91 in promotion of pupils, 100 in student management, 89 ff., 95 ff- lack of, in school management, 73 leadership in a, 108 ff. Dewey, John, quoted, 95, 98, 147, 151, 202 Disabled, re-education of the, 225 Domestic science, changes desir- able in the teaching of, 233 Earhart, Lida B., quoted, 89, 95, 97 Education: a new emphasis in, 145-238 National Council of, 56 Educational system: of Germany, 31 of the United States, 18 Elective system, 92 Eliot, Charles W., quoted, 101 Europe, government of, in 1776, 9 Exercise as means of combating idleness, 203 Finley, John H., quoted, 216, 220 Flag: lack of respect for, 156 proper display and use of, 254 respect for, 164 Food conservation, 140 Food Control Board, 54 Forest preservation, 141 Fourth of July, 1918, celebra- tions of, 9, 47 France, Americans in, 60 Fraternal organizations, cooper- ation of school with, 129 Frederick II, quoted, 25 Freedom: how preserved in the United States, isff. spirit of, effect on nations, 12 Geography, changes desirable in the teaching of, 231 George Junior Republic, 105 Germany: educational system of, 31 government of, 28 Gladstone, William, quoted, 91 Government: duties of, 1 6 of Europe in 1776, 9 26O THE INDEX Government aids to study of war, 5, 245 ff. Great War. See World War. Grosvenor, Gilbert, quoted, 165 Hall, Otis, E., quoted 100 Harris, William T., reference to, 99 Hart, Albert Bushnell, quoted, 65 Hart, Joseph Kinmont, quoted, 64 Health conservation, 134, 191 Health preservation as a means of teaching moral values, 191 Hill, David Jayne, quoted, 2, 34 Hill, James J., quoted, 120 Hill, Mabel, quoted, 95 History: aim in teaching, 162 as a means of teaching moral values, 1 88 as a means of teaching respect for law and order, 161 topics for teachers, 35, 44, 62 Hodges, George, quoted, 168 Home work, credit for, 204 Hoover, Herbert, quoted, 141 Hughes, Charles E., quoted, 8 Ideal, a national, 65 ff . Ideals: American, 66 ff . of the nations, 65 ff . Idleness, 195 ff. methods of attack, 203 subjects valuable in teaching evils of, 210 the school's relation to, 202 ff . Ignorance a foe to good citizen- ship, 213 ff. Illiteracy, the problem of, 213 ff. dangers of, 216, 218 how to combat, 220, 221 Independence Day, 1918, cele- brations of, 9, 47 Independence, Declaration of. See Declaration of Inde- pendence. Instruction, need of new aim in classroom, 147 ff. James, William, quoted, 99, 204 Jay Treaty, 21 Jefferson, Thomas, quoted, 15, 16, 18, 56, 213 Jewish Welfare Board, 58 Juvenile crime, 155 Kitchener, Lord, quoted, 178 Kellogg, Vernon, quoted, 176 Kennedy, Joseph, quoted, 108 Klemm, quoted, 33 Knights of Columbus, 58, 182 Lane, Franklin K., quoted, 59, 139, 213 Lathrop, Julia C., quoted, 229 Law and order: as basis of good citizenship, 152 ff. disrespect for, evidences of, 153 methods of teaching respect for, 157, i6off., i68ff. necessity for teaching, 153 outline for teaching respect for, 169 use of textbook in teaching, i6iff. THE INDEX 261 Leadership: need of democratic, 109 organizing the community for better, n8ff. Lewis, William D., quoted, 95 Liberty, how preserved in America, 16 Librarian as an aid to teachers, 242 Library, 241 ff. need of, in the rural schools, 244 Library movement, 241 Library War Council, 58 Lincoln School, self-government in, 103 Lindsey, Judge Ben, reference to, 158 Literature as a means of teach- ing moral values, 188 Locke, John, reference to, 198 Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, quoted, 45 Lowell, James Russell, quoted, 15 Lowe's Grove Farm Life School, 138 "Loyalty Leaflets," 249 McConaughy, quoted, 32 Marshall, John, quoted, 15 Men, needs of, in the commu- nity, 138 Miller, quoted, 146, 240 Mob spirit, 154 among boys, 1 56 Monroe Doctrine, 20, 22 Monroe, Paul, quoted, 65 Montesorri, Madame, reference to, 96 More, Thomas, reference to, 198 Moral values, 185 how to teach, 186 Morale, agencies for preserving soldiers', 57 Music as a means of teaching moral values, 191 National Council of Education, 56 National Defense, Council of, 53 National Gas Defense Board, 54 National Labor Board, 55 Nature study, changes desirable in the teaching of, 227 Neumann, Henry, quoted, 185, 189, 193 Orlando, Vittorio, quoted, 48 Osborne, Thomas Mott, quoted, 90, 91 Page, Walter H., quoted, 108 Page, William Tyler, quoted, 8 Palmer, George Herbert, quoted, 185 Panama tolls, 23 Parker, Francis W., quoted, 185 Part-time classes, 208 Paulsen, quoted, 32 Pestalozzi, reference to, 198 Poincare', President, quoted, 47 Politics, relation of school to, 1 12 Prison reform, 90, 91 Promotion of pupils, democracy in, 100 Prussia, 25 ff. foreign policy of, 30 struggle between democracy and autocracy in, after'Con- gress of .Vienna, 25 ff , 262 THE INDEX Prussianism, 25 ff., 37 ff., 50 Public Information, Committee on, 56 publications of, 246 ff . Quick, Herbert, quoted, 133 Reading circles: cooperation in, 85 courses for, 85 Recitation, conduct of, 97, 188 Reconstruction work, 134, 225 Recreation needs of young people, 142 Red Cross, 60 Red Cross War Council, 54 "Red, White, and Blue Series," 246 Religious bodies, organized for war work, 55 Rousseau, reference to, 198 Sabin, Henry, reference to, 100 Sadler, M. E., quoted, 175 Salvation Army, 182 Schleswig-Holstein, 30 School: and politics, 1 12 cooperation of, with the com- munity, 17, 72, in effect of national ideals on, 67 foundation of the American, 18 problems of the, 224 ff . standard for the, 183 School code, value of a, 115 School Garden Army, the United States, 227 School management: cooperation in, 80 ff . democracy in, 89 ff. phases for study, 93, 95 ff. School system, foundation of, in the United States, 18 School units, 12 1, 123 Schoolroom devices, 100 Schools, democratization of, 80 ff . Schwab, Charles M., quoted, 88 Self-governing bodies, 102 Self-government, student, 89 ff., 95 stages in growth of, 93, 96 ff. warnings against, 105 Service flags, 143 Smith-Hughes Act, reference to, 229 Shipping Board, 55 Smith, Adam, reference to, 118 Sneath, E. Hershey, quoted, 168 Snedden, David, quoted, 80, 230 Spaulding, quoted, 80, 81 Standards, effect of World War on, 5 Stanley, Dean, quoted, 83 Stars and Stripes. See Flag. Student activities, scope of, 104 Student management, democ- racy in, 89 ff., 95 ff. Suffrage, extension of, in the United States, 19, 20 Supervision, cost of, 117 Teacherage, 124, 125 Teachers: aids to, 239-256 duties of, 69 need of a new aim in teaching, 147 ff. relation to community, in, 113, 116, 119, 133 ff. topics for, 35, 44, 62 THE INDEX 263 Teachers' council, 81 criticism of, 83 in Los Angeles, 82 Teachers' homes, 124, 125 Teaching, moral aim in, 185 ff. Union, the, of English-speaking Peoples, 47 United States: educational system of, 18 foreign policy of, 21 foreign wars, 22 preparation for war in, 52, 59 problem of illiteracy in, 214 standards of, 178 suffrage in, 19, 20 Victor Emmanuel, King, quoted, 48 Virginia Teachers' Reading Circle, 6 Virtue, methods of teaching, 177 Vocations, study of, 206 Volksschule, 32 War, declarations of, 38, 39, 40, 4i. 42, 43 "War Information Series," 247 War Trade Board, 55 Washington, George, quotation from Farewell Address, 21, 175 Webster, Daniel, quoted, 15 Welfare agencies, 58, 61, 182 William, Emperor, quoted, 25 Wilson, Woodrow, quoted, 3, 5, 6, 23, 37, 136, 152, 195, 213, 224 Women, needs of, in the com- munity, 137 Wood, Thomas D., quoted, 134 "Work or fight" amendment, 199 World War: aims of: need of understand- ing, 4; why teachers should study, sff. cause of, 35, 38 declarations of war, 38, 39, 40 41, 42, 43 effect of, on subjects in curric- ulum, 5 government aids to the study of, 5, 245 land area and population of globe involved in, 4, 37 lessons from, 199 Young Men's Christian Associ- ation, 58, 128, 182 Young Women's Christian Asso- ciation, 128, 182 PATRIOTISM THROUGH LITERATURE SERIES The books of this series are meant to cultivate in young people a sane, helpful, and exalted patriotism and to teach them their obligations to the outside world. The Spirit of Democracy By Lyman P. Powell, LL.D., and Gertrude W. Powell, A.B. For the grammar grades. This book contains speeches by Wood- row Wilson, Lloyd George, Roosevelt, Joffre, Viviani, King Albert, Cardinal Mercier, the greatest spokesmen of their times, in the greatest moments of stress, together with the beautiful, the tragic, and the glorious things in poetry that should be impressed on the heart and memory. Illustrated with half-tone portraits. Price, 90 cents The World and Democracy By Lyman P. Powell, LL.D., and Charles Madison Curry For high schools. In the President's War Message, the famous Peace Program, Americanism, by Hartley Alexander, and other inspiring papers, the reader is given the American viewpoint of democracy; great leaders abroad speak for the Allies, while letters from fighting men in every branch of service speak for embattled democracy. In a fourth division, stories, poems, drama, and song programs express world ideals that make the pulse beat high. Illustrated with important maps. Price, $1.25 America and the League of Nations By Lyman P. Powell and Frederic B. Hod gins For high schools. This book embraces the address of the President to Congress on the eve of his departure for Europe pre- ceded by an introductory chapter on why the President went to Europe, his addresses made abroad, the Italian Controversy, the Visit to Belgium, the Joint Debate on the Covenant of Paris, and the Revised Covenant of the League of Nations. Illustrated with 32 full page pictures showing the President's progress through Europe. Price, $1.25 THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. 9,'6titG6338s8)9482 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FAC.UTV ^"000914368 6 __ fifi&HKN >v>s&v