SPECIAL WORK TO PREPARE PUPILS FOR CITIZENSHIP. 273 
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They need in the schools such a teaching as shall continually develop their mental 
sower so that they shall not simply think, this wiildo ; but, is there anything better 
chan this ? There is a lack of thinking power among the people which is due, to 
some extent, to defective methods of teaching the ordinary subjects of the schools. 
The introduction of agriculture among our people, an agricultural people, is about to 
‘ake place under government authority, and I have no doubt if that is properly taught 
it will tend to develop that power of which I have spoken, and which is now greatly 
lacking, but it will no more develop it than the prover teaching of almost any other 
subject. 
als which I have inspected in Jamaica will give you as fine specimens of pen- 
manship as any that can be found in this marvelous exhibit in Jackson Park ; and in 
other things they will show as much knowledge as boys and girls of similar age in other 
schools ; but they lack power. They also lack aspiration. They are not lifted up to 
seeking higher ideals, seeking for that progress which seems to be a characteristic of all 
the boys and girls of America, and I presume largely of every civilized country. In 
securing this aspiration Jamaica needs better teaching power, and it needs better text 
oooks. It makes a great deal of difference what sort of areading book you put into 
the school. And it will make a great deal of difference what sort of a history you put 
mto a school. I had occasion recently to send to America to place in the hands of 
some young men in Jamaica a history of the United States, which would show the 
causes of the great war, and I got a history in which every essential thing was elimi- 
nated, and there was nothing left there that would account for that unparalleled 
struggle on the part of the people of the North in which my friend General Eaton, and 
in which I myself, bore a part. 1 trust I am uttering no discordant note when I say 
that I think that the history which you place in your schools should contain the essen- 
Hal things which explain the great facts of the great struggle in which you took part, 
ind which has so greatly influenced the destinies not only of this land, but of all lands. 
v read not long ago something from a gentleman who spoke of the great influence for 
good which McGuffey’s old readers had when he was a schoolboy. I read those 
readers, and I want to say Amen to all that he said. We want in our reading books a 
record of great deeds ; we want the great thoughts of great minds to lift up the boys 
and girls, and give them that aspiration and that spirit to which Superintendent Jones 
referred. 
We, in Jamaica, watch very carefully all that is being done in America, and take a 
great interest in all of the discussions in regard to the introduction of manual training. 
[f you can solve the problem of how that can be successfully introduced into our com- 
mon schools with our ordinary teachers, you will have done us, in Jamaica. and the 
world in general, a very great benefit. 
WHAT SPECIAL WORK SHOULD BE UNDERTAKEN IN 
THE FELEMENTARY SCHOOL TO PREPARE THE 
PUPILS FOR THE DUTIES OF CITIZENSHIP ? 
BY WM. A. MOWRY, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, SALEM, MASS. 
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IT is taken for granted that ‘elementary school” here referred to 
means the elementary ¢ public” school. By this term, public school, is 
meant in this country a school maintained at public expense ; that is, by 
taxation. The fundamental principle of the American public school is 
chat the property of the State is taxed to educate the children of the 
State. The assumption, therefore, is clearly implied that the welfare of 
the State demands the education of all the children. These several 
points are here assumed without discussion. 
The next important question which arises is, In what branches and 
with what motive shall these children be educated ? It is not within the