ee citizen,
in other words, he must become socialized. He must get over the notion that
the school is the only educational agency and must understand that every
influence that modifies conduct is educative in nature. Especially must he
learn that the community itself is the chief civic and social educator of
children, and as such it should be consciously organized to perform well
this responsibility.

Already communities are awakening to the need of perfect sanitary and
hygienic conditions, and clean town contests are the order of the day; this
is one of the most hopeful signs of better times, but there ought to be a
moral and mental awakening and contests for civic righteousness should be
inaugurated. Any community that can say: "In this town no influence is
permitted that could in any way corrupt the morals or ideals of children,"
should receive the highest award in the gift of the people and its praises
should be commemorated in song and story.

In ancient Greece every citizen regarded himself as a parent or guardian of
every child, and if any youth was seen in public to violate any of the
customs or ideals of the nation, it was the duty of the citizen to
chastise the boy and to otherwise instruct him in the duties of
citizenship. At the same time the citizen was careful himself to set an
example worthy of emulation. The result was the most perfect and harmonious
education that the world has ever seen--at once the inspiration and the
despair of all succeeding civilizations. Why should we not adopt some of
the Grecian methods suited to our needs? In Greece no citizen would think
of doing in public, or permitting to be done, anything which was not
desirable for the child to do either in public or private. Why should any
man who walks upright, with his head pointing to the stars, be permitted to
profane the name of Deity, to stagger under the influence of liquor, to
puff at a cigar, to gamble, to run a disorderly resort or show, to enrich
himself through the manufacture and sale of poisons, or to do anything else
that corrupts the community and destroys her children? Surely in our feeble
attempts at free government, the right hand knows not what the left is
doing.

But the remedy, as I have said, is in the hands of the citizens. While it
is true that certain reforms to be most effective must be national rather
than local, such, for example, as prohibiting the manufacture and sale of
poisonous drugs, tobacco and alcoho