Substantially all these enactments provide that instruction in the required subjects shall begin in the elementary grades, continue in the high school and in courses in state colleges, universities and educational departments of state and municipal institutions to an extent to be determined by the superintendent of public instruction or by the state board of education.[272]
Endorsement of the study of the Constitution was given by Congress in March, 1925, when the Senate passed a House resolution expressing “the earnest hope and desire that every educational institution, whether public or private, will provide and maintain as a part of the required curriculum, a course for the study of the Constitution of the United States....”
The many laws enacted during the years following the World War are indicative of the high value placed upon the social studies as an essential part of education. Besides laws requiring the teaching of these subjects purely for their content, many enactments express a high faith that the social studies will serve to inculcate patriotism and to train for citizenship. Forty-three commonwealths have engaged in legislation of this character since 1917, and all states have at some time endorsed history as a required subject in the public schools.[273]
OATHS OF ALLEGIANCE AND CITIZENSHIP FOR TEACHERS
Few laws requiring American citizenship and oaths of allegiance, in the case of teachers, appeared on the statute books prior to 1914. The World War precipitated the movement for enactments which insist upon an openly avowed loyalty, as well as upon a teaching personnel consisting of citizens only.[274]
In 1915, three states enacted anti-alien laws for teaching. A Michigan statute required a teacher, if twenty-one years of age, to be a citizen of the United States.[275] Nevada directed the superintendent of public instruction, the regents of the state university and school trustees to dismiss “any teacher, ..., professor or president employed by the educational department of this state who is not a citizen of the United States; or who has not declared his or her intention to become a citizen.” The law forbade any state controller or county auditor to issue salary warrants to the persons mentioned, in case of non-citizenship.[276]
In California a law of 1915 prescribed that “no person except a native-born or naturalized citizen of the United States, should be employed in any department of the state, county, city and county or city-government of this state.” An exception, however, was made in favor of teachers who had declared their intention to become naturalized and of any native-born wife of a foreigner.[277]
In 1917, the one hundred and fortieth session of the New York legislature gave its assent to a bill which has become known as one of the Lusk laws. This law reflects precisely the same sort of apprehension which moved some of the legislators of the Civil War period. It became the precursor of three others of a like nature, one in 1918, one in 1919, and one in 1921. The law of 1917 related to treasonable or seditious utterances by teachers, the second and third to the granting of teachers’ licenses to citizens only, and the fourth to the employment of teachers who have criticized the government of the United States.
The law of 1917 relating to freedom of speech prescribed that “a person employed as superintendent of schools, teacher or employee in the public schools, ... shall be removed from such position for the utterance of any treasonable or seditious act, or acts, while holding such position.”[278] The laws of 1918 and 1919 made citizenship an essential qualification for becoming a teacher. Any person employed as a teacher on April 4, 1918, however, who was not naturalized, was given permission to remain in his position provided he, within a year, should make application for citizenship. The law of 1919 exempted from the foregoing requirement teachers who were citizens of the Allied Powers in the World War, and who had been employed as teachers in the New York schools on or prior to April 4, 1918, provided that “such teacher make application to become a citizen before the first day of September, 1920, and within the time thereafter prescribed by law shall become such citizen.”[279]
The third link in the chain of constraint was an enactment which declared that an applicant, even though a citizen, must be “a person of good moral character” and must be “loyal and obedient to the government of this state and of the United States,” in order to obtain a license to teach. For “no such certificate shall be issued to any person who, while a citizen of the United States, has advocated either by word of mouth or in writing, a change in the form of government of the United States or of this state, by force, violence or any unlawful means.” The statute provided that the discovery that a teacher were guilty of any of the prohibitions mentioned, made him liable to a revocation of his certificate through the commissioner of education.[280] The sum of $15,000 was appropriated to carry the act into effect.[281]