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