Of this community pupils and teachers are members with certain common interests. Cooperation is the keynote of the community life. The realization of this cooperation is seen in the classrooms, in study halls, in the assembly room, in the corridors, on the playground. It manifests itself in the method of preparing and conducting recitations; in the care of school property; in protecting the rights of younger children; in maintaining the sanitary conditions of the building and grounds; in the elimination of cases of "discipline" and of irregularity of attendance; in the preparation and conduct of opening exercises, school entertainments, and graduating exercises; in beautifying the school grounds; in the making of repairs and equipment for "our school"; in fact, in every aspect of the school life.
[Footnote: "Civic Education in Elementary Schools," p. 31, United
States Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1915, No. 17.]
THE SCHOOL AS A COMMUNITY CENTER
The schoolhouse is becoming more and more the center of community life. We have noticed how, in Randolph County, Indiana, the consolidated school building affords a meeting place for all sorts of community activities. The school law of California provides that:
There is hereby established a civic center at each and every public schoolhouse within the State of California, where the citizens of the respective public school districts … may engage in supervised recreational activities, and where they may meet and discuss … any and all subjects and questions which in their judgment may appertain to the educational, political, economic, artistic, and moral interests of the respective communities in which they may reside; Provided, that such use of said public schoolhouse and grounds for said meetings shall in no wise interfere with such use and occupancy of said public schoolhouse and grounds as is now, or hereafter may be, required for the purpose of said public schools of the State of California. Investigate and report on the following:
Provision in your school and in the schools of your state for health work suggested in the table on page 299.
Other provisions in your school for the physical well-being of pupils.
The work of your school that relates directly to preparation for earning a living.
The extent to which a high school can make a farmer.
The operation of the Smith-Hughes Act in your state and in your county or town.