Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks
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RURAL EDUCATION SERIES
EDITED BY HAROLD W. FOGHT
PRESIDENT SOUTH DAKOTA TEACHERS COLLEGE
COMMUNITY CIVICS AND RURAL LIFE
BY ARTHUR W. DUNN
SPECIALIST IN CIVIC EDUCATION, UNITED STATES BUREAU OF EDUCATION;
AUTHOR OF "THE COMMUNITY AND THE CITIZEN"
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
This book, like the author's earlier one, The Community and the
Citizen, is a "community civics" text. Two purposes led to the
preparation of this second volume. The first was to produce a text
that would meet the needs of pupils and teachers who live outside
of the environment of the large city. Training for citizenship in
a democracy is a fundamentally identical process in all
communities, whether urban or rural. But, if it really functions
in the life of the citizen, this process must consist largely in
deriving educational values from the actual civic situations in
which he normally finds himself. Moreover, instruction that
relates to matters that lie beyond immediate experience must
nevertheless be interpreted in terms of that experience if it is
really to have meaning. At least half of the young citizens of
America live in an environment that is essentially rural. Hence
their need for civics instruction that takes its point of
departure in, and refers back to, a body of experience that
differs in many ways from that of the urban citizen.
This does not imply that urban conditions should be ignored in the
civic education of the rural citizen. On the contrary, one of the
things that every citizen should be led to appreciate is the
interdependence of country and city in a unified national life. In
the present volume emphasis is given to this interdependence. For
this reason, and because of the fundamental principles which have
controlled the development of the text, it is believed that the
book may perform a distinct service even in city schools.
The second purpose in undertaking the present book has been to
make as obvious as possible the elements which, in the author's
judgment, characterize "community civics" and give it vitality.
The Community and the Citizen was a pioneer among texts that have
sought to vitalize the study of government and citizenship. The
term "community civics" became current only at a later time to
designate the "new civics" which that book represented. It seems
to the author, however, that many teachers and others have seized
upon some of the more incidental, even though important, features
of the "new civics" without apparently recognizing its really
vital characteristics.
For example, the "new civics" performed a real service in giving
emphasis to the study of the "local community," which was being
sadly neglected ten or fifteen years ago. It was this emphasis,
doubtless, that gave rise to the name "community civics." But
"local study," even though labelled "community civics," may be,
and often is, entirely lacking in vitalizing features. On the
other hand, the vitalizing methods that should characterize
community civics may be applied to the study of our "national
community," and even of the embryonic "world community,"--and
should be so applied in any "community civics" that is worthy of a
place in our schools in this critical period of national and world
history. The real significance of the term "community civics" is
to be found in its application to an interpretation of the
COMMUNITY-CHARACTER of national and international life equally
with that of town or neighborhood.
Another service that community civics performed was in introducing
certain elements of social or "sociological" study into grades as
low as the grammar school. This has sometimes led to the
description of community civics as "elementary sociology." The
Community and the Citizen was perhaps the first "civics" textbook
to include such "sociological" material. So far as that book is
concerned, at least, the "sociological" material was included
PRIMARILY to afford a viewpoint from which the better to interpret
GOVERNMENT AND CITIZENSHIP. This point seems often to be missed,
with the result that in some schools we find a more or less
vitalized "social study" labelled "community civics," FOLLOWED BY
a formal study of government that shows no obvious, organic
relation to the earlier study. Whatever else "community civics"
may accomplish, one of its foremost aims should be TO MAKE
GOVERNMENT, INCLUDING THAT OF THE NATION, MEAN SOMETHING TO THE
YOUNG CITIZEN. In the present book the author has endeavored to
keep this aim prominent in the mind of the teacher. It is hoped
that the organic relation of the last few chapters, which deal
explicitly with governmental mechanism and operation, to the
earlier chapters will be obvious.
The underlying, vitalizing features of community civics may be
summed up as:
1. THE DEMONSTRATION TO THE YOUNG CITIZEN, BY REFERENCE TO HIS OWN
OBSERVATION AND EXPERIENCE, OF THE MEANING OF HIS COMMUNITY LIFE
(LOCAL AND NATIONAL), AND OF GOVERNMENT IN ITS RELATION TO THAT
LIFE;
2. THE CULTIVATION OF CERTAIN HABITS, IDEALS, AND ATTITUDES
ESSENTIAL TO EFFECTIVE PARTICIPATION IN THAT LIFE THROUGH
GOVERNMENT AND OTHERWISE.
The aim of the following text is to fix in the pupil's
consciousness a few essential ideas, which will help to determine
his ideals and attitudes, by a judicious USE of facts, which will
thereby be more readily remembered and understood. "The most
important element of success in community life ... is TEAM WORK;
and team work depends, first of all, UPON A COMMON PURPOSE". The
controlling ideas throughout the following chapters are:
1. The common purposes in our community life;
2. Our interdependence in attaining these common purposes;
3. The consequent necessity for cooperation (team work);
4. Government as a means of securing teamwork for the common good.
These ideas are set up in the first few chapters and exemplified
in the remaining chapters. They are easily grasped by young
citizens when DEMONSTRATED by reference to their own observation
and experience, which the text and the accompanying topics seek as
far as possible to compel. The last few chapters contain an
analysis of our governmental mechanism which seeks to answer the
question, How far does our government provide the organization,
the leadership, and the control over leadership necessary to
secure the teamwork which the preceding chapters have shown to be
essential?
The present volume is larger than The Community and the Citizen.
The author believes that this is an advantage, especially for
pupils in communities where supplementary materials are not so
easily available. The increased length is due chiefly to the
liberal incorporation of concrete illustrative and explanatory
matter. Young students need larger textbooks, provided the
additional matter clothes the skeleton with living flesh.
Whether based on this textbook or some other, however, community
civics cannot be successfully taught if it is made primarily a
textbook study. The word "demonstration" has been used advisedly
in the paragraphs above as applied to the ideas to be taught. The
text sets up ideas, interprets and exemplifies them; but
"demonstration" can be made only as the pupils draw upon their own
observation and experience. Hence, numerous SUGGESTIVE topics are
interspersed throughout to divert attention from the text and to
direct it to the actualities of the pupils' experience. Even the
topics should not be followed literally in every case, but should
be diversified to meet the needs and opportunities of the
occasion. But to "omit" such studies as suggested by the topics is
to negate the value of community civics.
The successful teacher will seek to extend the pupil's opportunity
to participate in group activities both within the school and in
the community outside, and will make the fullest possible use of
such activities both as a means of demonstrating the operation of
the fundamental principles of civic life, and as a means of
cultivating "habits, ideals, and attitudes." "Training for
citizenship through service" is an essential factor in community
civics.
"Community civics" has now been quite definitely assigned to the
junior high school grades (see Report of Committee on Social
Studies, Bulletin, 1916, No. 28, U.S. Bureau of Education). While
the tendency is toward continuous civics instruction in all of
these grades, practice still varies greatly. The present text has
been written in recognition of this variation and is, in the
author's judgment, adapt able to any of the grades in question. If
community civics is placed below the ninth grade, however, the
author would suggest its distribution over both seventh and eighth
grades. An outline suggesting a vital coordination between the
civics and the history of these grades, and of particular service
in the seventh grade, is given in United States Bureau of
Education Bulletin, 1919, No. 50, Part 3 (a report on Civic
Education for the Schools of Memphis, Tenn.).
It may be added that community civics in the junior high school
grades will be vastly more effective if it is preceded in the six
elementary grades by some such course as that outlined in
Citizenship in School and Out (Dunn and Harris, published by D.C.
Heath & Company). See also Lessons in Civics for the Six
Elementary Grades of City Schools, by Hannah Margaret Harris
(Bulletin, 1920, No. 18, U.S. Bureau of Education).
A list of "Readings" is appended to each of the following
chapters. While it is not expected that pupils in the grades for
which the book is intended will do a great deal of reading outside
of the text, an abundance of illustrative material is desirable
and much more easily available, even for rural schools, than is
often appreciated. Let the pupils USE THEIR GOVERNMENT, in this
connection, as freely as possible. A very large part of the
references given are to government publications, many of which can
be obtained free of cost directly from the departments issuing
them, and all of which can be had for a nominal cost from the
Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office,
Washington, D.C. Useful publications of the state government and
of state institutions can usually be had for the asking. In
ordering from the Superintendent of Documents the money must be
sent in advance (stamps are not accepted). Lists of publications
with the prices may be obtained from the Superintendent of
Documents, or from the several Departments of the Government.
Frequent reference is made to Lessons in Community and National
Life. These are issued in three pamphlets (Series A, B, and C) by
the United States Bureau of Education, at 15 cents per pamphlet.
They contain a large amount of illustrative material. A very few
books are referred to in certain chapters because of their
especial value when obtainable. Among these are two collections of
patriotic selections valuable because of their emphasis upon
national ideals--Long's American Patriotic Prose (D.C. Heath &
Company), and Foerster and Pierson's American Ideals (Houghton
Mifflin Company). Other similar collections will be found useful.
The illustrations of the book, with comparatively few exceptions,
are from photographs furnished by various departments of the
United States Government.
ARTHUR W. DUNN.
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
Rural schools, and schools whose pupils have largely a background
of rural experience, have not done as much as they should towards
training for citizenship. This is largely because the text books
have failed to interpret citizenship and government in terms of
the actual experience of such pupils, or to stimulate teamwork and
leadership in communities with a distinctly rural background. More
over, in city and rural schools alike, there has been failure to
emphasize the interdependence of rural and urban communities in a
single national enterprise. Community Civics and Rural Life is
planned to meet these deficiencies.
There has been too much TALKING ABOUT citizenship in school, and
too little LIVING it from day to day. Training for citizenship
necessitates its daily practice in school and out. In the hands of
an able teacher, Community Civics and Rural Life should point the
way to real community living, both now and in the future. It
should teach the pupils what their real civic responsibilities are
as well as their civic opportunities--and assist them to embrace
them when they come. Children so trained will learn to respect,
now and later, the rights of their neighbors, and will become as
fair in their dealings with the government as with their
fellowmen. They will furnish their communities with the right kind
of leaders, unselfish and public spirited. When the time calls,
they will be ready to accept and shed a new dignity upon the old
positions of school trustee, highway engineer, sanitary inspector,
township supervisor, county commissioner, or the more conspicuous
offices of state and national government. Or as plain citizens
they will lend these officials their active support for community
and national betterment.
HAROLD W. FOGHT.
CONTENTS
I. Our Common Purposes in Community Life
II. How We Depend Upon One Another in Community Life
III. The Need for Cooperation in Community Life
IV. Why We Have Government
V. What is Citizenship?
VI. What is Our Community?
VII. Our National Community
VIII. A World Community
IX. The Home
X. Why Government Helps in Home Making
XI. Earning a Living
XII. Government as a Means of Cooperation in Agriculture
XIII. Thrift
XIV. The Relation Between the People and the Land
XV. Conserving Our Natural Resources
XVI. Protection of Property and Property Rights
XVII. Roads and Transportation
XVIII. Communication
XIX. Education
XX. The Community's Health
XXI. Social, Aesthetic, and Spiritual Wants
XXII. Dependent, Defective, and Delinquent Members of the Community
XXIII. Teamwork in Taxation
XXIV. How We Govern Ourselves
XXV. Our Local Governments
XXVI. Our State Governments
XXVII. Our National Government
Appendix--The Constitution of the United States
COMMUNITY CIVICS
CHAPTER I
OUR COMMON PURPOSES IN COMMUNITY LIFE
TEAM WORK AND COMMON PURPOSES
The most important element of success in community life, as in a
ball game, a family, or a school, is TEAM WORK; and team work
depends, first of all, upon a COMMON PURPOSE. Our nation gave an
example of team work during the recent war such as is seldom seen;
and this was be cause every member of the nation was keenly intent
on WINNING. We may see the same thing in our school when Christmas
entertainment is being planned, when an athletic tournament is
approaching, or when some other school activity is under way in
which all are deeply interested. It is often illustrated in our
town, or rural neighborhood when some important enterprise is on
foot, such as the building of a new railroad into town, a Red
Cross "drive" and a county fair, or the construction of a much
needed new schoolhouse.
RECOGNITION OF COMMON PURPOSES
All communities have common purposes, although they are not always
as clearly defined as when our nation was at war, or as in the
other cases mentioned in the preceding paragraph. Sometimes the
people of a community, or a large portion of them, seem to be
wholly unconscious that a common purpose exists. This may be true
even in a family or in a school. And when this happens, the effect
is the same as if there WERE no common purpose. No club or
athletic team can be successful unless its members have a common
purpose AND UNDERSTAND IT. Insofar as our communities are
imperfect--and none of them, is perfect--it is largely because
their members fail to recognize or understand their common
purposes.
People in communities have common purposes because they have the
same wants. This may not at first seem to be true.
COMMON PURPOSES DUE TO COMMON WANTS
If we visit a large city, we see throngs of people hurrying hither
and thither, jostling one another, apparently in the greatest
confusion. We wonder where they are all going, what they are
doing, what they are seeking. In rural communities or in small
towns there is less apparent confusion than in the bustling life
of the city. Yet even here it is not always easy to see common
purposes and common interests. Whether in large or small
communities, we are more likely to be impressed by the VARIETY of
men's wants and even by the CONFLICT of their purposes.
But no matter how numerous and conflicting our wants may seem,
they may all be grouped in a very few important kinds, which are
common to all of us alike. It will be worthwhile to test the truth
of this, because it will help us to see our community life in some
kind of order, and will throw a flood of light upon the common
purposes that control it.
PHYSICAL WANTS: LIFE AND HEALTH
For example, we all want food, drink, and sleep, clothing to
protect our bodies, and houses to shelter us. But all these things
supply our PHYSICAL wants; that is, they re late to LIFE AND
HEALTH. Many of the things that we do every day are important
because of their relation to our physical well-being. One reason
why we enjoy out door sports is that they make our blood tingle
and give a sense of physical pleasure. Unless our physical wants
are provided for, the other wants of life cannot well be
satisfied. Good health is a priceless possession.
Mention some things you have done today for your physical welfare.
THE WANT FOR ASSOCIATION WITH OTHERS
Another reason why sports and games give pleasure is be cause of
the association they afford with other people. ASSOCIATION WITH
OTHERS is a second great want which explains many of the things we
do. Whatever may be our other reasons for going to school, it
affords us the opportunity to meet and work and play with other
boys and girls to our pleasure and profit. One of the objections
often raised against life in the country is the lack of
opportunity for association with other people. But life in the
country is not so isolated as it once was; and one may be very
much alone in a city crowd, where nearly all are strangers to one
another, and where there is very little real association among
individuals. City families often live in the same apartment house
without knowing one another.
What are some things you do especially for the sake of
companionship?
THE WANT FOR KNOWLEDGE
While going to school enables us to associate with others, the
principal reason for going is to gain KNOWLEDGE. Whether we always
like our studies or not, we certainly want knowledge, and seek it
in many ways. We read the newspaper or magazine that comes to the
home. We ask questions of parents and others who have had more
experience than we. We may travel to see new sights. We examine
with curiosity a new machine for the farm. The discoveries and
inventions that mark man's progress in civilization are the result
of his unquenchable thirst for knowledge.
Mention some of the different ways in which you seek knowledge.
Mention some geographic and scientific discoveries that have been
made through man's search for knowledge.
What is science? Name some sciences.
THE WANT FOR BEAUTY
Besides health and knowledge and association with other people, we
want surroundings that are pleasant and beautiful. The want for
BEAUTY is sometimes more neglected than other wants, but it is
important, and we all have it and seek to satisfy it in some way
or other. It may be at one time by a walk in the woods or fields,
or at other times by cultivating flowers, by keeping our room
tidy, by looking at pictures, or by exercising good taste in
clothing. We also enjoy beauty in sound, as the song of birds or
music in the home or school.
In what ways do you provide for this want?
THE RELIGIOUS WANT
Very likely we go to church on Sunday. It affords opportunity to
enjoy association with others, to add to our knowledge, and to
hear beautiful music. But the church service is one of the chief
means by which people satisfy another of the great wants of life
--the RELIGIOUS want. Individuals differ in their religious ideas
and in the depth of their religious feelings, but in every
community there are certain things that men do because of it.
What are some of the great religions of the world?
Is religion a strong influence in your community?
Can you mention any great historical events that were due to
religious causes?
THE WANT FOR WEALTH
Perhaps after school, or on Saturdays, or in vacation time, we
work at tasks to earn money, or at least help in occupations that
contribute to the "living" of the family. Doubtless we have
thought more or less about what we are going to do for a living
after we leave school. We all have a desire to own things, to have
property, to accumulate WEALTH. This also is one of the great
wants of life. We have perhaps already experienced the
satisfaction of raising our own first crop of corn or potatoes, of
acquiring our first livestock, of putting away or selling our
first supply of canned fruits or vegetables, of buying a set of
tools, a bicycle, or some books, of starting a bank account. But
after all the chief reason why we want wealth, or to "make money,"
is because of what we can do with it. It enables us to satisfy our
wants. Earning a living simply means earning the things that
satisfy our wants in life.
Make a blackboard list of the occupations by which the parents and
other members of the families of the pupils in the class make a
living.
Make a blackboard list of things done by members of the class to
earn money.
What is your choice of occupation by which to make a living in the
future? Why? Make a blackboard list for the whole class.
THESE WANTS GIVE PURPOSE TO COMMUNITY LIFE
The six kinds of wants that we have indicated clearly account for
many of the things that we do. In fact, ALL of our wants are of
one or another of these kinds and EVERYTHING we do is important
because of its relation to them. We may not be ready, yet, to
accept this statement. We may think of wants that seem at first
not to fall under any of these six kinds. It will do no harm to
add other kinds to the list if we think it necessary. But, at all
events, the six kinds of wants mentioned are common to all of us.
We live in communities in order to provide for them, and a
community is good to live in proportion as it provides for all of
them adequately. It is these wants that give COMMON PURPOSE to our
community life.
Make as complete a list as possible of the things you did
yesterday (outside of school as well as in school). Then extend
the list to include the more important things done during the
entire week.
Write the six wants across the top of a page of your notebook or a
sheet of paper:
Health
Knowledge
Association
Beauty
Religion
Wealth
Arrange the activities in your list in the six columns according
to the wants which they satisfy. If any activity clearly satisfies
more than one of the wants, write it down in EACH of the proper
columns.
Which column is the longest? which comes next? which is the
shortest?
Is your longest column also the longest in the lists made by other
members of your class? Compare your other columns with those of
your classmates. Which wants seem to keep you busiest?
Which do you think is most important? Why? Discuss this question
in class. Do you all agree in regard to this point?
If any of the activities in your list are for the purpose of
earning money, tell for what you expect to spend the money. Show
how the things you expect to buy with your money will help to
satisfy your other five wants.
For which of these six wants do you spend the most time in
providing? your father? your mother? If there is a difference in
the three answers, why is it?
Do you have difficulty in classifying any of the things you do, or
that you see others do, under any of the six heads? Make note of
these things and, as your study proceeds, see if the difficulty of
classification is removed.
Suppose a boy is a BULLY: what wants does he satisfy by his
bullying conduct? Suppose a boy or a girl is ambitious to become a
LEADER, either among present companions or later in social life,
business, or politics: under which head or heads would you place
this ambition?
A boy wants to enlist in the army, or a girl as an army nurse: do
these wants come under any of the six heads?
Would you, after your discussion of these topics, add any other
group or kind of wants to the six mentioned? If so, what would you
call it?
Every one wants HAPPINESS. Why is it not necessary to make a
special group under this head?
Make a list of things done in your home to provide for each of the
six wants.
What is done in your school to provide for the want for health?
for beauty? for association with others? for the religious want?
Has your school work any relation to your desire to make a living?
Is it the business of the school to provide for all these things
as well as for the want for knowledge?
Make a list of a few things done in your community outside of the
home and school to provide for each of the six wants.
Think of something in which your entire community is deeply
interested, such as the improvement of the roads, or the building
of a new high school, or a county fair, and explain what wants it
provides for.
What wants do the following things provide for: rural mail
delivery; weather reports; a corn club (or a similar club); a
school garden; a library; the telephone; a hospital; a parent-
teacher association?
THE PURPOSE OF DEMOCRACY
We may often hear our common purposes as communities or as a
nation stated in different terms than those suggested in the
paragraphs above. For example, Franklin K. Lane, the Secretary of
the Interior during the war, said, "Our national purpose is to
transmute days of dreary work into happier lives--for ourselves
first and for all others in their time." Again, President Wilson
said that our purpose in entering the world war was to help "make
the world safe for democracy." Although these two statements read
differently, they mean very much the same thing; and they both
refer in general terms to the things this chapter discusses in
more familiar and express terms. For "happier lives" can only
result from a more complete satisfaction of our common wants. Our
own happiness comes from the satisfaction of our own wants AND
FROM HELPING TO SATISFY THE WANTS OF OTHERS. And "democracy"
means, in part, that the COMMON WANTS OF ALL shall be properly
provided for.
In the Declaration of Independence we read:
WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF-EVIDENT, THAT ALL MEN ARE CREATED
EQUAL THAT THEY ARE ENDOWED BY THEIR CREATOR WITH CERTAIN
UNALIENABLE RIGHTS, THAT AMONG THESE ARE LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE
PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.
OUR UNALIENABLE RIGHTS
The statement that "all men are created equal" has troubled many
people when they have thought of the obvious inequalities that
exist in natural ability and opportunity. But whatever
inequalities may exist, people are absolutely equal in their RIGHT
to satisfy the wants described in this chapter. These are the
"unalienable rights" which the Declaration of Independence sums up
in the phrase "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." That
community is best to live in that most nearly provides equal
opportunity for all its citizens to enjoy these rights. From the
Declaration of Independence to the present day, our great national
purpose has been to increase this opportunity, even though at
times we have apparently not been conscious of it, and even though
we have fallen short of its fulfillment. One of the chief objects
of our study is to find out how our communities are seeking to
accomplish this purpose.
"The Declaration of Independence did not mention the questions of
our day. It is of no consequence to us unless we can translate its
general terms into examples of the present day and substitute them
in some vital way for the examples it itself gives, so concrete,
so intimately involved in the circumstances of the day in which it
was conceived and written. It is an eminently practical document,
meant for the use of practical men ... Unless we can translate it
into the questions of our own day, we are not worthy of it, we are
not sons of the sires who acted in response to its challenge."--
Woodrow Wilson, in The New Freedom, pp. 48, 49.
A and B are two boys of the same age. One was born in a rich
family, and one in a very poor family. So far as this accident of
birth is concerned, have they equal OPPORTUNITY to satisfy the
wants of life? Have they an equal RIGHT to health? to an
education? to pleasant surroundings? to earn a good living?
Suppose A is a Native American boy, and B a foreign-born boy who
speaks a foreign language: does this make any difference in their
RIGHT to life and health, an education, etc.? Does it make any
difference in their OPPORTUNITY to satisfy their wants in these
directions?
Can you think of persons in your community who have less
OPPORTUNITY to satisfy their wants than you have? Can you think of
any persons who have less RIGHT to satisfy their wants than you
have?
The first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States
comprise what is known as a "bill of rights." Study together in
class this bill of rights (see Appendix) to see how many of the
wants described in this chapter are there, provided for directly
and indirectly.
Has your state constitution a bill of rights? If so, read it
together in class for the same purpose as suggested in the last
question.
READINGS
Preamble of the Constitution of the United States (see Appendix).
The Declaration of Independence.
Dunn, Arthur W., The Community and the Citizen, Chapters, i, iv.
(Heath).
Tufts, James H., The Real Business of Living (Henry Holt & Co.),
Chapter xxxix, ("Democracy as Equality").
Van Dyke, Henry, "Equality of Opportunity," in Long's American
Patriotic Prose, pp. 311, 312 (Heath).
See the note on reference materials in the Introduction to this
book.
It should become a HABIT of both teacher and pupils to be on the
constant lookout for news items and discussions in available
newspapers and periodicals illustrative of the points made in each
chapter or lesson. Individual scrapbooks may be made, but more
important than this is the assembling of such material as a class
enterprise, its classification under proper heads, and its
preservation in scrapbooks or in files as working material for
succeeding classes. There will always be enough for each class to
do, while each class at the same time contributes to the success
of the work of later classes. The idea of SERVICE should dominate
such work.