Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1912-12-10
CIVIC TEACHING
MUCH NEEDED
IN SCHOOLS
roo MANY BOYS IGNORANT
OF the Ordinary Facts of
Civil Government


possibility of doubt that schools sup
ported by public taxation should train
the rising generation in the duties and
responsibilities of citizenship" says
Prof. Percy Lewis Kaye, head OF the
department of history in the Baltimore
City College.
within the last IS or 20 years CON
tinued Professor Kaye, history has
been given somewhat adequate atten-
ton in the schools from the lower
grades up to the college. But that
disideratum has not yet come to pass
with regard to ciyics.
"A few years ago a professor Of gov
eminent in a large Western college,
impressed by the ignorance of some Of
his students on the subject of govern
ment. instituted an inquiry as to the
condition in number of representa-
tive colleges in various parts OF the
country.
The results showed an astonishing
lack of knowledge of the most rud-
imentary elements of subjects about
which every citizen might be assumed
to know something, viz elections, the
composition of Congress and the ottic-
ers, the sheriff and the county clerk
and many ideas of county government
are the vagest.
The professor who conducted this
inquiry thus states the impression
made by reading the $50 papers sub
mitted.
AT first the plumbers provoke a
smile, occasionally an outright laugh.
They seem to be mere blunders, the
Jokes that make human frailities seem
funny.
But when case piles upon case you
begin to fear that the want of infor-
nation about government and the utter
lack of comprehension of our political
system may be the rule, not the excep-
ton, among this much-favored class
of the rising generation. Under these
circumstances one is apt to rise from
an hours reading of the papers think
/ ing in a very serious vein.
Now, these were students who had
spent one or two years in college after
having passed through the secondary
schools and who might be supposed,
therefore, to have acquired the ability
to read about public affairs and gather
information for themselves. What, then
must be the condition among that
vastly larger number of the rising
generation who leave school at the
eighth grade or before and who never
see the inside of high school or col
lege?
"Manifestly, the public schools are
neglecting an opportunity and Sinking
la duty when they fail to afford to ell
ementary pupils an opportunity TO
study community life in which they
are to grow up and in which and upon
which they must become members and
exert an influence for good or bad
government.
What kind of civics may be taught
in the elementary schols and how
shall it be taught? The question has
been answered in number of places.
About three years ago New York
papers commented on the addition of /
new subject to the list of studies in
the eighth grade of the Chicago
schools entitled Chicago, in which the
local geography and ciyics of the city
were taught This attracted the atten-
! ton of Superintendent Tinker of Wa
terbury, Conn, who issued a statement
describing the course in local geogra-
ply, history and civics which had been
in use in the Waterbury schools for
more than II years.
Further inquiry ELECTED the infor-
nation that ciyics was being regularly
and formally taught in a number of
cities all over the country. At least
five states require the teaching of civ
les in the public schools
In Boston the teaching of ciyics be-
gins by directing the attention of pu-
pills to noted buildings, old burying
grounds, monuments, public squares,
parks, street and historic names.
Superintendent Dyer of Cincinnati,
Inentions among the topics in the course
in civics for the eighth grade The
Family and Its Relation to the Com
munity,' The Protection of Health,
The Protection of Property and Life.
Business Life of the Community, Ed
ulation,' Civic Beauty and How the
Community Governs Itself
I'm 1910 a committee of the Ameri-
can Historical Association reported a
course of study in history and civics
for elementary schools in which it was
recommended that specific instruction
in elementary ciyics should begin
/ in the fifth grade 1t was urged that
the special aim in teaching civics
should be to help the child realize
himself as a member of each political
group that does work for him by show
ing him what are the most important
things that are done by the Govern