ent derived. The school, therefore,
stands in an intermediate position between family government and civil
government proper, partaking of some features of each, and forming a
sort of stepping-stone for the child from the natural restraints of
home to the more complex demands of civil society. The school
district, also, while partaking of the nature of a civil institution,
is in many respects to be regarded as a co-operative organization of
the families of the neighborhood for the education of their children,
and its government as a co-operative family government.

THE CIVIL UNIT DEFINED.

In nearly every part of the United States there is a unit of civil
society in which the people exercise many of the powers of government
at first hand. This civil unit is variously named in the different
States, and its first organization may have been for some minor
purpose; but it has grown to be an important sphere of government in
many States, and throughout the entire country it is the primary school
of the citizen and the voter.

There are many different names by which this civil unit is known.

In the State of Mississippi it is called the _Beat_, and this name is
no doubt derived from the original purpose of the organization, as the
jurisdiction of a watchman or constable.

In Delaware it is called the _Hundred_, which is the old English
subdivision of a county, supposed to contain one hundred families, or
one hundred men able to bear arms in the public service.

In the New England States, in New York, and in Wisconsin it is called
the _Town_, from the old Anglo-Saxon civil unit, which antedates the
settlement of England by its Saxon invaders, and is probably older than
the Christian era.

In Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri,
Montana, New Jersey, the Carolinas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and parts of
Illinois, Nebraska, and the Dakotas, it is called the _Township_, only
a variation of name from the "town," and having the same origin.

In California it is called the _Judicial Township_, and in parts of the
Dakotas it is called the _School Township_.

In Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and
parts of Illinois and Nebraska, it is called the _Election Precinct_,
from the fact that it was the subdivision made for the convenience of
voters.

In Georgia it is called the _Militia District_, from the fact that each
subdivision furnished a certain proportionate number o