a. A town warrant.
b. A town report.
c. A tax bill, a permit, a certificate, or any town paper that
has or may have an official signature.
d. A report of the school committee.
If you live in a city, send to the clerk of a neighbouring town for a warrant, inclosing a stamp for the reply. City documents will answer most of the purposes of this exercise.
Make any of the foregoing documents the basis of a report.
2. Give an account of the following:—
a. The various kinds of taxes raised in your town, the amount of each
kind, the valuation, the rate, the proposed use of the money, etc.
b. The work of any department of the town government for a year, as, for
example, that of the overseers of the poor.
c. Any pressing need of your town, public sentiment towards it, the
probable cost of satisfying it, the obstacles in the way of meeting
it, etc.
3. A good way to arouse interest in the subject of town government is to organize the class as a town-meeting, and let it discuss live local questions in accordance with articles in a warrant. For helpful details attend a town-meeting, read the record of some meeting, consult some person familiar with town proceedings, or study the General Statutes.
To insure a discussion, it may be necessary at the outset for the teacher to assign to the several pupils single points to be expanded and presented in order.
There is an advantage in the teacher's serving as moderator. He may, as teacher, pause to give such directions and explanations as may be helpful to young citizens.
The pupils should be held up to the more obvious requirements of parliamentary law, and shown how to use its rules to accomplish various purposes.
4. Has the state a right to direct the education of its youth? If the state has such a right, are there any limits to the exercise of it? Does the right to direct the education of its youth carry with it the right to abolish private schools?