inhabitants and
settlers of Ontario.

CIVICS

The teaching of civics has a threefold aim:

1. To instruct in the mechanism of government. (Descriptive)

2. To instruct in the history of national institutions so as to show the
line of development, and also to impress the fact that existing
institutions are capable of development, are not fixed. (Historical)

3. "To show the cost of each institution in the efforts and sacrifices
of past generations and to quicken and make permanent the children's
interest in public life and their sense of responsibility to their
fellows." (Patriotic and Ethical)

Two points stand out clearly--to teach the machinery of government and
to instil ideals of public conduct. Of these the second is by far the
more important and the more difficult to teach directly. The best way to
attempt it is by means of biography and personal references. There are
great men and women in history whose lives are worthy examples to the
young: Sir John Eliot, Pym, Hampden, who stood for freedom of speech and
debate; Gladstone, who helped to right historic wrongs in the East;
Lincoln, who stood for union and the freedom of the individual; many
eminent Canadians, such as Sir John Macdonald, George Brown, Alexander
Mackenzie, Egerton Ryerson, Sir Oliver Mowat, and Sir James Whitney;
women such as Florence Nightingale and Elizabeth Fry, Laura Secord and
Sarah Maxwell. Besides these eminent examples, there are in every
locality men and women who give unselfishly of their energy and time for
the good of the community.

There should also be impressed on the minds of the young a sense of
their responsibility for an honest and faithful use of the ballot, a
right won for them by the long and earnest effort of their forefathers;
and the necessity for purity of government in our democratic form of
administration. In school life, a good deal can be done to create a
sense of fair play, respect for the rights of others, and of the
necessity for submission to lawful authority by encouraging the pupils
to conduct all their school organizations, whether in play or in work,
honourably and by right methods.

Some of the lessons that may be taught to children during their school
life are as follows:

1. Respect for the rights of others. Pupils may be brought to see that
misconduct on their part affects others, not themselves only.

2. Respect for the property of others. This may be secured best by
teaching them to take