he argument that a sense of unreality may arise as a result of the
apparent completeness of knowledge gained in the school is met by the
close contact maintained all the time with the community outside.

There is unanimity of opinion that civics shall be taught from the
elementary school onwards:

"We believe," runs the report of the Committee of Eight of the
American Historical Association, "that elementary civics should
permeate the entire school life of the child. In the early grades
the most effective features of this instruction will be directly
connected with the teaching of regular subjects in the course of
study. Through story, poem and song there is the quickening of
those emotions which influence civic life. The works and
biographies of great men furnish many opportunities for incidental
instruction in civics. The elements of geography serve to emphasise
the interdependence of men--the very earliest lesson in civic
instruction. A study of pictures and architecture arouses the
desire for civic beauty and orderliness[3]."

A recent inquiry by a Committee of the American Political Science
Association makes it quite clear that the subject is actually taught
in the bulk of the elementary and secondary schools of the various
States and that generally the results are satisfactory, or indicate
clearly necessary reforms. The difficulty of providing suitable
text-books is partly met by the addition of supplementary local
information.

There are very few colleges and universities which do not provide
courses in political science.

No claim is made that the teaching of civics makes of necessity good
citizens, but merely that it makes the good citizen into a better
one. The justification of the subject lies in its own content.

It is a study of an important phase of human society and, for this
reason the same value as elementary science or history[4].

There is, moreover, throughout the various American reports, an
insistence on the power of the community ideal in the school and the
necessity for discipline in the performance of school duties and a due
appreciation of the importance of individual action in relation to the
class and to the school.

In England there has been much general and uncoordinated advocacy of
the direct teaching of citizenship, but, for various reasons, it does
not appear to have been introduced generally into the schools,