H5 COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY MABEL HILL AND PHILIP DAVIS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Illustrations on pages 39, 49, 50, and 108 are used by courtesy of The Riverside Press CAMBRIDGE. MASSACHUSETTS U.S.A FOREWORD THE spirit of democracy is finely expressed in the everyday "give-and-take" relations between American teachers and new Americans, young and old. Reading, conversation, discussion, and question and answer very naturally result in that free exchange of ideas and ideals which is the best guaranty of true assimilation - the blending of all that is best in the old and in the new world. The democratic idea of education for all new Americans demands that their experiences here shall be so interpreted in the classroom that they may understand their environment and adjust themselves to it; and that they shall be taught how to take part in the activities of the social and political community. The authors of Civics for New Americans are fully aware of the difficulties which in the past have made education for immigrants a real problem. Recent studies of social conditions have emphasized the necessity of explaining the situation to our future citizens, now newly arrived from all parts of the world. This book, therefore, attempts to set forth the work that is going on in many American cities to better both social and political conditions. Thus the newcomers may discover not only what is being done for them, but what they are expected to do for themselves and for their fellows. The book challenges every new American to affiliate himself with the constructive element in his 415505 |