Howard Lee McBain
Published: 2017-10-30
Total Pages: 254
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Excerpt from How We Are Governed in Virginia and the Nation In the manner of approaching the subject the author-has been moved by the further conviction that the elementary teaching of civil government will always be a bugbear and a failure unless its chief purpose is to relate the child in an intimate and personal way to the activities of govern ment. To' the pupil of less than high school age the powers and the functions of the State auditor or the organization of, and procedure in, the civil courts of the State are very dry subjects indeed, and very naturally so. But if he lives in a city, he probably takes a lively interest in the fire department, in the police, in the many things the city undertakes to do for the health of the community - things, such as a sewerage system, which he knows about but has perhaps never thought to ascribe to the government. Or if he lives in the country, he is doubtless vitally interested in what his county is doing tor-improve roads or to con solidate schools. It has been the conscious purpose Of the author in the first six chapters Of this book to make the child above all else, see the government as a real, active thing about him, a thing Of which he is a part. It is only after the pupil's interest has been thoroughly aroused to note the many operations Of the government that the effort is made-to Show him how the government Of his State is supported, organized, and Operated. This is done in as simple language as possible. The child mind is kept constantly in v1ew, and emphasis is laid upon the actual Operation Of the machinery of government rather than upon elaborate details of its organization. Obviously it is more difficult to infuse this same personal element into the child's study of the national government. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.