AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

BY

JOHN T. GREENAN, A.M.

Department of Social Sciences, East Orange High School, East Orange, N.J.

AND

ALBERT B. MEREDITH, L.H.D., LL.D.
Commissioner of Education for Connecticut, Formerly Assistant
Commissioner of Education of New Jersey

DEDICATED TO

THE BOYS AND GIRLS OF

EAST ORANGE HIGH SCHOOL

WHO HAVE HELPED

TO MAKE THIS VOLUME POSSIBLE

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GOD SEND US MEN

F. J. GILLMAN

God send us men whose aim 'twill be,
Not to defend some ancient creed,
But to live out the laws of Right
In every thought and word and deed.

God send us men alert and quick
His lofty precepts to translate
Until the laws of Right become
The laws and habits of the State.

God send us men of steadfast will,
Patient, courageous, strong and true;
With vision clear and mind equipped,
His will to learn, His work to do.

God send us men with hearts ablaze,
All truth to love, all wrong to hate.
These are the patriots nations need,
These are the bulwarks of the State.

Reprinted by courtesy of The Century Company

A WORD TO TEACHERS

I. TEACHING CONCRETE PROBLEMS VITAL TO STUDENT AND NATION

In view of the wide circulation of the Report of the Committee on Social Studies of the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education of the National Education Association, it would hardly seem necessary to repeat the reasons given for urging the adoption of a course in Problems of American Democracy in the twelfth year. But there may appear to be some necessity for explaining the unusual organization of material as presented in this text.

Those who have read the report of the Committee referred to above will recall the following paragraphs:

"Is it not time, in this field as in history 'to take up the whole problem afresh, freed. . . from the impressions of' the traditional social sciences?"

"The only feasible way the committee can see by which to satisfy in reasonable measure the demands of the several social sciences, while maintaining due regard for the requirements of secondary education, is to organize instruction, not on the basis of the several social sciences, but on the basis of concrete problems of vital importance to society and of immediate interest to the pupil."

"The purposes of secondary education and not the intrinsic value of any particular body of knowledge should be the determining consideration. From the standpoint of the purposes of secondary education, it is far less important that the adolescent youth should acquire a comprehensive knowledge of any or all of the social sciences than it is that he should be given experience and practice in the observation of social phenomena as he encounters them; that he should be brought to understand that every social problem is many-sided and complex; and that he should acquire the habit of dispassionate consideration of all the facts available. This, the committee believes, can best be