aprons and cakes and donated them to the society. The girls were divided into groups of three or four each one of which had to make at least one dollar's worth of sugar into candy.

Various other preparations are noted which need not be repeated. Every high school in the country could give such illustrations. Their value as a means of social training is unquestioned.

EXPERIMENTS NOW IN PROGRESS.—The limitations of time and space do not permit of the offering of much other material on student activities. In larger schools they are usually elaborately developed but they do not reveal any differences in principle from those in the smaller schools. The inquiries directed by the writer to persons interested in these things in high schools shows that in the main the teachers are absorbed in the rather insistent problems of sponsorship and general oversight and have not yet learned to evaluate the results or to measure them in any very definite way. All sorts of interesting experiments are today being tried out and when these are adequately reported we shall know much more that is worth while regarding the social-educational values of such types of effort.

STUDENT PARTICIPATION IN SCHOOL GOVERNMENT

Of this phase of group action we shall here say little. It has been widely advertised and discussed and represents, in the writer's way of looking at it, a very important character-forming influence. Group responsibility for a good school is fostered and the control of the group over the individual is well illustrated.

While there are many schools both elementary and secondary which are trying with success various forms of pupil-participation in school government, there is still a surprising ignorance of and prejudice against the idea in the minds of many school-men. No one movement accomplishes more for practical moral education than does this and moral education is admittedly the greatest need of American education today. When we reflect upon the social and moral needs of our school children we cannot but feel that an undue amount of time is being spent upon questions of administration and on courses of study which have little ultimate significance for character formation, the one great problem before our country at the present time.

TRAINING IN THE SCHOOLS FOR CIVIC EFFICIENCY

BY J. LYNN BARNARD, PH.D.,

Professor of History and Government, Philadelphia School of Pedagogy.

Time was when a man could be a most efficient individual in his business or profession, in his church relationships, in all matters of personal concern, and at the same time be utterly inefficient or even conscienceless as a member of the body politic. Religion and politics were not to be mixed, nor were religion and business. But politics might become the handmaiden of business-especially big business! Democracy seemed to be breaking down, and most noticeably in our cities. Our reforms were spasms: our relapses were recoveries-returns to the normal order of things.

But this epoch, we believe, is slowly passing. The younger generation are learning to think straight and true in public matters, whether of city, state, or nation. They really want to be good citizens, and they are coming to see that "the test of good citizenship lies in the existence of an intelligent, continuing interest in the questions of good government." We are all learning that the supremest effort must be made to "combine efficiency with our popular sovereignty."

The press, the pulpit, women's clubs, civic associations, and finally the colleges, all these and others have helped to start what promises to be a veritable tidal wave of civic interest and enlightenment. Have the schools been doing their part in this training for civic efficiency? If not, are they awake to the fact and laying plans for the future? The first question is easily answered, and with an emphatic negative which has no need of proof. The second query is as readily met, and with an affirmative the proof of which it is the purpose of this brief article to present.

Since any education which has the remotest bearing on life is an indirect preparation for the performance of civic duties, it is obvious that only direct preparation for the meeting of civic obligations is here to be considered.

Formal instruction in civics seems to have come into our schools

soon after the Civil War, in the form of a clause-by-clause memorization of the Federal Constitution, interspersed with salaries and terms of office of government officials. Probably intended at the beginning to inculcate a spirit of nationality, as opposed to states rights, in course of time it came to have no justification whatever and simply lingered on till something vital should come to take its place. In the conservative East it has had to wait for nearly half a century!

A course so lacking in interest for pupil and teacher alike, and so valueless as a means of real civic training, could hardly fail to be attacked from all sides. The National Education Association, the National Municipal League, the American Political Science Association, the American Historical Association, and the National Bureau of Education-not to mention others have recently joined in the onslaught. And the day of deliverance is at hand for longsuffering youngsters and apathetic teachers. Fortunately, coöperation between these various organizations has been effected and much valuable time saved.

THEORY OF THE NEW CIVICS

In order that what has been worked out in this coöperative fashion may be understood, it may not be amiss to state briefly the reasoning that underlies the New Civics.

The object of teaching, generally, may be stated as twofold: first, cultural, to acquaint the child with his environment; second, practical, to train for citizenship. There are various sorts of environment, each with its corresponding field of study. Among others is that man-made, social environment which we term the community, and the study of which we call civics. The community has been well defined as a group of people in a single locality, bound together by common interests and subject to common rules or laws. And the various types of community include the home, the school, the church, the shop, the state. A citizen is anyone who participates in community action, sharing its privileges and properly subject to a share in its duties and responsibilities. The good citizen is one who manfully shoulders his obligations as a citizen and performs his part well as a member of his community. All are citizens, whether young or old, for all are members of one or more of these communities-always including the state.

Civics, then, on its cultural side is the study of that social environment we call the community; on its practical side it is a training for efficient community service and particularly in that type of community which we term the state. And this leads us to the conclusion that civics as a school subject includes both a curriculum of studies and a curriculum of activities. How far away this leads us from the old-time memory endurance test can well be imagined.

The steps in this newer sort of civic training would naturally be: first, to secure a fund of practical information about civic matters; second, to arouse interest in the problems studied; third, to stimulate to such coöperation with community agencies as the maturity and experience of the pupil enables him (or her) to offer,-for, be it remembered, the "good citizen " must be good for something. Equally patent, it would seem, but so long overlooked in the teaching of civics, is the method of approach. From the near to the remote, from the simple to the complex, from the concrete to the abstract, from function to structure, from local to state and national, from matters of current interest to those of origin and growth,-how else than by this method-at once scientific and "commonsensible❞— can the live interest of the boy and girl be roused and their wills be strengthened to lend a hand wherever they can? And this making of good-for-something citizens of city, state, and nation-is the final goal of the New Civics.

A PRACTICAL PROGRAM FOR THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

And now for a practical program of civic education for our young citizens. As it is developing over the country for the elemtary schools, this program is one in aim and in point of view; while in method and in detail two main types are emerging, to one or the other of which all others are likely to conform-until such time as the two plans shall be happily blended.

The first of these methods, splendidly exemplified by Indianapolis, one of the pioneer cities in genuine civic training, makes no attempt to teach civics as a separate subject before the last year of the grammar school. It depends, rather, upon so correlating the various studies-including not only geography and history, but even arithmetic-that all alike shall contribute their share to the civic education of the young person.

The second method, just going into operation in Philadelphia

does not hesitate to label its civic instruction as such, throughout all the eight years of the elementary school. It deliberately takes for its own the distinctively civic content to be found in any of the other subjects of the elementary curriculum, and builds up a unified structure.

A most interesting account of the former plan, written by Mr. Arthur W. Dunn, one of its authors, may be found in Bulletin No. 17, 1915, United States Bureau of Education. The writer of this paper takes the liberty of giving an outline sketch of the latter plan, with which he is more familiar since he has helped to formulate it.

In the early grades the fundamental civic virtues,―obedience, helpfulness, courtesy, punctuality, and the like,—are inculcated by the use of stories, songs, games, memory gems and dramatization. The aim is threefold: to establish right habits of thought and action in the children; to project these habits into the home and into their other relationships as well; to show the pupils how all community life is based on the embodiment of these virtues in each member of society.

Later, the pupil is brought in touch with a wider community than his home and his school, and now he learns of the services that are being rendered in a personal way to each family represented in the class, by the milkman, the grocer, the baker, the plumber, the doctor, the dressmaker, and others. Then follow the services rendered by corporate agencies, such as the policeman, the fireman, the street-sweeper, the garbage-collector, the ashes-collector; by the trolley car, the telephone, the water supply, gas and electricity, the sewage system, etc. The civic virtues considered in the earlier grades are here seen to be exemplified to a marked degree, and the reciprocal duties and obligations resting upon the young citizens of the class toward those who render these community services are practically emphasized. Accessible educational and other public institutions are visited and reported upon,-not even forgetting the places for suitable amusement and recreation.

Next follows a year devoted to the city as an industrial unit. The great industries (manufacturing and commercial) which have helped make the city famous are first considered, and visits are made to these plants whenever practicable. The various occupations which may be followed by young people, and even by older ones, are then discussed, using simple descriptive "write-ups" and other