REPUBLIC A TEXT-BOOK IN GOVERNMENT BY JAMES ALBERT WOODBURN AND THOMAS FRANCIS MORAN PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AND ECONOMICS, PURDUE UNIVERSITY LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. FOURTH AVENUE & 30TH STREET, NEW YORK ΤΗ INTRODUCTION HIS volume is intended as a text-book for use in courses in Civil Government in secondary schools. It should follow, or accompany, a high school course in American History. It is an attempt to answer the demand for that which is needful and important in the "new civics" sometimes called "community civics," and at the same time to hold fast to that which is good in the old. In introducing an educational reform there is always danger of over-emphasis; there is danger that we may not have a good thing without having too much of it. The authors of this volume, while emphasizing "community civics" and the moral purposes in teaching government, have sought to avoid a one-sided course. They believe that the schools should study the community and such "new civics" as the changing times call for, and especially that they should give attention to current history and presentday problems of democracy; but it is equally important not to neglect certain aspects of the old established order. It may be well to set pupils to the laboratory method of studying the actual life of our city communities, how milk and water are supplied, how food is distributed, how public health is preserved, how the streets are kept clean (or dirty), how the taxes are raised and used, and how the schools are sustained. But to limit a high school course in civics to such a field of study is to commit a great wrong to young people who are under training for citizenship. The field of civics is the world. Any course that concentrates the pupils' attention to their own village, city, or State, to the exclusion of the rest of the world, is narrow and foolish. The Constitution of the United States is still in iii running order, and it is still a document worthy of the careful study of all citizens who are to live under it. The State and National Governments under their constitutions, and how these Governments are conducted, are still matters of prime importance for high school study in civil government. Teachers of civics should not be encouraged to neglect these old fields of learning. We should seek at all times and places and in all courses of study to train the young in social intelligence, social disposition, and social efficiency. Above all, every possible effort should be made to see that young citizens in our schools should be rooted and grounded in the fundamental principles and ideals for which America has always stood, that they may come to understand the foundations of their democracy, the sources of their liberties and the means by which these liberties may be preserved, and the deep significance of American citizenship. This, let us hope, may lead these citizenrulers of America to aspire to such national and international ideals and relationships as will be best calculated to achieve and cherish justice, peace, and democracy throughout the world. This volume is offered as a contribution to this high end. |