Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1917-03-07
SOCIAL STUDIES
IN HIGH SCHOOLS
IS BEING URGED
STUDENT IS A MEMBER OF L0-
CAL COMMUNITY; ALSO Ma
TIONAL COMMUNITY

How history, civics, and kindred
subjects in the high school may be
made to meet the requirements of
present-day citizenship and the needs
of boys and girls as growing citizens
is told in a report on the social stud
les in secondary education just pub
lished as a bulletin of the United
States Bureau of Education of the
Department of the Interior.
This report is the first to appear of
the final reports of the Commission
on the Reorganization of Secondary
Education, which was appointed in
1912 by the National Education As
sociation. The commission, organic
ed in sixteen committees which in
clude in their membership more than
200 superintendents, principals, and
teachers representing nearly all the
states of the union, has been at work
continuously since its appointment.
The report on social studies comprises
six-year program, embracing the
work of the seventh and eighth
grades and that of the present four
year high school.
While the civic-educational value of
all the social studies (such as history.
government, economies, and geo.
graphy) is kept in the foreground of
the report, special emphasize is Civ
en- to organized civics instruction, of
the community civics" type, in the
eighth and nineth years. The fact
is emphasized, however, that the
pupils is a member not only of local
community, but also of a national
community. at would be inexpress-
IDLY unfortunate if the study of local
community life and relations should
supplant a study of national life and
national civic relations. The two as
poets of civic life should clearly sup
plant each other Questions
of health, of education, of industry
can no longer be considered in their
local bearings alone, but must be
dealt with in the light Of national
policy and to the end of national eff
ficiency. -"
Other topics dealt with in Part 2
of the report are the civic relations
of vocational life, the adaptation of
civics of rural conditions, and the re-
lation of civics to history. In con-
nection with the first Of these topics
it is said that the chief purpose should
be "the development Of an apprecia-
ton of the social significance of all
work; of the social value and interde-
pendence of all occupations; of the
social responsibility of the worker, not
only for the character Of his work,
but for the use Of its fruits; of the
opportunities and necessity for good
citizenship in vocational life; of the
duty of the community to the worker;
of the necessity of social control,
governmental and otherwise, of the
economic activities of the community;
and If the part that government actu-
ally plays in regulating the economic
life of he community and of the in
dividual."
For the the last year Of the high
school the report proposes a concrete
study of problems Of democracy"
"These problems will naturally vary
from year to year, and from cless to
class, but they should be selected on
the ground (1) of their immediate
interest to the class, and (2) Of their
vital importance to society" "The
purposes of secondary education and
not the intrinsic value Of any parti-
Continued on Page Eighty