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bellion against authority; (i) Knowing the rules of a game and playing it so that disputes are avoided; (j) Reporting serious offenses to proper authorities.

Things to Do:

1. Collect and bring to class for discussion editorials, news items, special articles, posters, and cartoons which embody appeals to seriously consider the responsibilities of citizenship.

2. Make a list of the various agencies engaged in the social work carried on in your community. Interview the person in charge of such an organization and report to the class.

3. Choose a vocation and show the training required, the possibilities for success, in fact all the steps necessary to reach the position of highest responsibility in it. 4. Make a list of the things your city, state, and federal governments are doing for you.

5. Using newspapers in class, discuss the relative merits of the contents with reference to the essentials of good citizenship set forth in the chapter.

6. Further exercises in citizenship for stimulating class discussion and training in making decisions vital in the life of every citizen can be had by using "Tests in Citizenship" by Chassell and Chassell (Bureau of Publications, Columbia University). The problems are presented in story form with judgment questions aiming at the thoughtful consideration of the problems of Honesty, Thrift, Self-control, Civic Responsibility, Fair play, Perseverance, and Trustworthiness.

Helpful and Inspirational Books:

Dunn-"Community Civics for City Schools"
Dunn-"Community Civics and Rural Life"
Bok-"Americanization of Edward Bok"
Hale "Man Without a Country"
Riis "The Making of an American"
Hagedorn-"You are the Hope of the World"

Place of education in government.

CHAPTER TWO

GOOD CITIZENSHIP REQUIRES A STUDY OF THE DEVEL

OPMENT OF OUR CONSTITUTION

The greater portion of the people of the world have no choice in selecting their governors. In such countries there are two school systems. One educates those who are to rule and the other those who are ruled. The educational opportunity which a child receives is determined by birth and social position. The "high born" are given a complete education in one school system. The "low born" attend a different system and receive but a meager elementary training completed at an early age.

The "low born," or the people destined to be followers, do not study the fundamental principles of government. They are deliberately trained to be good, hard-working, industriously efficient, lawabiding subjects, content to plod along in an unchanging groove without having their curiosity aroused about the origin and the operation of their government.

In America we are really the governors ourselves and we must be trained to know the meaning of true liberty, to exercise the rights of a ruling citizenship, and to know the value of industry, of courage, and of character.

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In early childhood we have only a personal in- The terest and cannot forget our own selfish desires ground however much they interfere with the rights of of citizenothers. As we grow older we know well that it is ship. the contacts we make with our parents, our neighbors, our friends, our schoolmates, our civic institutions, and our surroundings which make us what we are. Every association should have a tendency to mold us into better citizens. If we think back over our lives, we realize that we have passed through an evolution in the formation of habits to reach our present state of citizenship. In a similar way our nation has grown because our nation is composed of individuals such as ourselves. Our nation is a product of the Anglo-Saxon race. This race has the distinction of developing a capacity for self-government and for creating the free institutions which we have inherited.

Our religion is presented to us in historical form, and we enjoy studying the story of its fundamental principles and the sacrifices that made it an established religion.

Similarly we must study the story of the development of our Constitution, creating a background before we study this great document itself. "Precedents like cobblestones pave the pathway to the Constitution," and that pathway reaches far back to the beginning of the struggle for personal liberty.

It will be a matter of the highest interest to know. how our government was created, how it operates,

Periods of Development.

and how it may be made the means of further progress in promoting the general welfare.

A great journalist writing on the Constitution said, "Almost every provision in that instrument has a history that must be understood before the brief and sententious language employed can be comprehended in the relations its authors intended."

It is with these principles in mind that we concern ourselves with the historical background and trace the development of the Constitution through its various stages until we study in their original form this and other great documents of liberty.

THE GROWTH OF THE CONSTITUTION

The form of government under which we live is not the work of a day, nor is it the work of any one man or any one body of men. It is the outgrowth of long experience. It is the product of a gradual evolution through a period dating far back in history. As we follow the growth of the Constitution, through the successive steps by which it was formed, we shall try to emphasize the underlying principles which, slowly but steadily, led the colonies to form a firm and lasting union and which have made the America of to-day one of the greatest governments of all time.

Broadly speaking, the story of the growth of the Constitution may be divided into three periods, although each period is related to the one following so that no definite line of demarcation can be drawn between the different periods.

QUESTIONS

To the Pupil:

1. Why is ignorance of the Constitution a real danger to us? 2. If our fellow citizens are in ignorance of the enforcement and the violation of the Constitution, can it affect our liberty? Why?

3. Why concern ourselves about understanding the Constitution when others in authority will do that for us?

4. Imagine that all the copies of the Constitution in existence were destroyed. On what basis would we continue our government? Why?

5. A good business man will not become a party to a contract without a thorough investigation, and in the case of real estate traces the history of the transaction back to government ownership. (a) Show how the government as a party of the first part and you as a party of the second part form a Personal Liberty-Insurance Contract. (b) Why is it good business policy, regardless of your duty as a citizen, to investigate what the government expects of you? (c) Show why the government is justified in expecting returns to the best of your natural ability.

6. Show how each generation can furnish the material which enables the one following to make more progress.

7. What object do business houses, life insurance companies, and banks have in using with their advertising material reproductions of famous documents and pictures of meetings and of men preparing such documents?

Things to Do:

1. Find the history of some local custom or institution and show how this knowledge gives you more interest in it. 2. From your grandparents get a description of the schools they attended and the subjects taught. Using this information in comparison with your school, show how their experiences were of service in giving you superior advantages.

3. Debate-Knowledge of the Constitution and its development is quite as essential to good citizenship as knowledge of the rules of a game before playing it.

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