Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
This book, like the author's earlier one, The Community and theCitizen, is a "community civics" text. Two purposes led to thepreparation of this second volume. The first was to produce a textthat would meet the needs of pupils and teachers who live outsideof the environment of the large city. Training for citizenship ina democracy is a fundamentally identical process in allcommunities, whether urban or rural. But, if it really functionsin the life of the citizen, this process must consist largely inderiving educational values from the actual civic situations inwhich he normally finds himself. Moreover, instruction thatrelates to matters that lie beyond immediate experience mustnevertheless be interpreted in terms of that experience if it isreally to have meaning. At least half of the young citizens ofAmerica live in an environment that is essentially rural. Hencetheir need for civics instruction that takes its point ofdeparture in, and refers back to, a body of experience thatdiffers in many ways from that of the urban citizen.
This does not imply that urban conditions should be ignored in thecivic education of the rural citizen. On the contrary, one of thethings that every citizen should be led to appreciate is theinterdependence of country and city in a unified national life. Inthe present volume emphasis is given to this interdependence. Forthis reason, and because of the fundamental principles which havecontrolled the development of the text, it is believed that thebook may perform a distinct service even in city schools.
The second purpose in undertaking the present book has been tomake as obvious as possible the elements which, in the author'sjudgment, characterize "community civics" and give it vitality.The Community and the Citizen was a pioneer among texts that havesought to vitalize the study of government and citizenship. Theterm "community civics" became current only at a later time todesignate the "new civics" which that book represented. It seemsto the author, however, that many teachers and others have seizedupon some of the more incidental, even though important, featuresof the "new civics" without apparently recognizing its reallyvital characteristics.
For example, the "new civics" performed a real service in givingemphasis to the study of the "local community," which was beingsadly neglected ten or fifteen years ago. It was this emphasis,doubtless, that gave rise to the name "community civics." But"local study," even though labelled "community civics," may be,and often is, entirely lacking in vitalizing features. On theother hand, the vitalizing methods that should characterizecommunity civics may be applied to the study of our "nationalcommunity," and even of the embryonic "world community,"—andshould be so applied in any "community civics" that is worthy of aplace in our schools in this critical period of national and worldhistory. The real significance of the term "community civics" isto be found in its application to an interpretation of theCOMMUNITY-CHARACTER of national and international life equallywith that of town or neighborhood.
Another service