This picture suggests the American boy's natural tendency to come to a decision in a way perfectly fair to both parties, and to stand by it cheerfully when it goes against him HARVARD UNIVERSITY DEPT. OF EDUCATION LIBRAR JUN 11 920 TRANSFERRED TO HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY 1932 COPYRIGHT, 1919, 1920, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS B TO THE TEACHER THE urgent need for teaching the theory and practice of American government to our boys and girls at the earliest practicable moment in their schooling is now widely recognized. The facts have long been appreciated by educators; through the war the problem has been brought into general consideration. But one pupil in three goes to high school. To delay the teaching of formal civics until then is to permit two out of three of our boys and girls to grow up with no accurate knowledge of our governmental structure and faith. In our new realization of the dependence of America upon the understanding and devotion of her every citizen, the desirability of ending this condition has become clear to every one. This volume is aimed to help in this important work. It is designed as a text-book for the last years of elementary school. Among the scores of works on American civics there are almost none that attempt to describe the theory of our government and its essential machinery with the simplicity attempted here. The teaching of community civics in the lower grades has been ably developed and with it a number of excellent volumes stressing the practical and local operations of government, street-cleaning, the fire department, and so on. At the other end stand the many admirable text-books, |