Service outside of military and naval; as, for example, the munition work, transportation, building of ships and machinery, farming, etc.
Faithfulness of foreign-born citizens.
Need of efficiency and economy in local, municipal, and state governments.
Description of modern warfare as defining the immediate task of the American people in regard to organization and action of the various services; as, for example, men in the trenches, health protection, Red Cross, etc.
Accessories; for instance, patriotic music and recitations, flag marches, and parades.
Illustrative material, such as maps and charts illustrating the problems of recruiting; slides and movies; posters in public places; exhibitions of foreign posters.
These topics as outlined here are not sufficiently related to the actual conflict. They are excellent from the formal point of view, but they fail to get at the center of living interest in the vital present moment of history. Often when it has been asked of the children in France: "What are you studying?" "What are they teaching you?" the answer has been: "The war, madam." "The war, monsieur." And if the question was taken up with the teacher, the answer has been:
By means of our war map on which is marked the present position of the French and German troops, the particular spot in the line in which the parents of our boys and girls are fighting, we teach not only current history, but in the most vital way geography and many related subjects.
By means of our use of great contemporary political documents, by the speeches of Viviani, Deschanel, Ribot, and the other statesmen, by the famous orders of Joffre, Pétain, and our military leaders, by the interpretation of the war by our great philosophers,—we teach in the most vital way the need of the country, the ideals of France, and much of the history of France. By reason of the war work instituted in every school as part of the regular curriculum, we teach commercial geography, economics, and many branches of science as they are actually related to human life and experience, and not in the abstract manner in which they are treated in the textbooks.
Mr. Albert Sarraut, Minister of Public Instruction in France in 1914-1915, said in a public address:
If there remains in the schools of France a single teacher who has not been profoundly touched by the war and who goes about his usual occupation of teaching in the same way that he did prior to August 2, 1914, teaching the same subjects in the same way, doing only the ordinary, familiar school tasks, whose work has not been entirely transformed and inspired by the war, we have yet to hear of him or her, and we do not believe that such exists.