he past,
and, because the things which they did enable us to live as we do,
children should be taught history, particularly the history of their own
country, state, and town.

The child comes into contact, in addition to people, with the
institutions which people have constructed--the home, the school, the
state, the industrial system. Every child who grows to maturity will
participate in the activity of these institutions, hence every child
should be taught about them. In the last two years of the elementary
grades civics can be successfully taught, since even at twelve years
children are interested in the things which are happening around them.
In the high schools this work can be carried much further in the form of
social and industrial problem courses.

The most universal and by far the largest of the child's surroundings
consist of the things about him. He lives in a world, a very little
world to be sure, but to him it is great; and a knowledge of the world
comes through a study of geography. Beginning with the geography of his
native town (not with the basin of the Ganges) he can learn successively
about the geography of the county, the state, the country, and then of
the world.

Surrounding the child on every hand are plants and animals. Nature study
gives him an intelligent interest in them. As he grows older general
nature study may be subdivided into geology, botany, zoology; and the
forces of nature may be examined in astronomy, chemistry, and physics:
but most of these subjects are too specialized for the elementary
grades, and should appear, if at all, in the high schools.

There is a group of courses which belongs in every school--elementary
school as well as high school--namely, the courses which prepare
children for life activity. Growth and training in the art of living
enable children to fulfill the third function of their being--that of
doing. Every man and every woman needs work in order to live, and it is
a part of the duty of education to prepare them for that work.

First of all, as modern society has developed, every man and many women
need an income-producing trade or occupation; hence it is the duty of
the schools to provide trade and professional educations (really the
same thing under different names). No child should be permitted to leave
the schools until he is proficient in some income-giving work. The
character of the teaching must be altered to suit the locality, but the
principle