Community Civics and Rural Life

Community Civics and Rural
Life

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Title: Community Civics and Rural Life
Author: Arthur W. Dunn
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RURAL EDUCATION SERIES
EDITED BY HAROLD W. FOGHT
PRESIDENT SOUTH DAKOTA TEACHERS COLLEGE
COMMUNITY CIVICS AND RURAL LIFE
BY ARTHUR W. DUNN
SPECIALIST IN CIVIC EDUCATION, UNITED STATES BUREAU
OF EDUCATION; AUTHOR OF "THE COMMUNITY AND THE
CITIZEN"

INTRODUCTORY NOTE
This book, like the author's earlier one, The Community and the Citizen,
is a "community civics" text. Two purposes led to the preparation of
this second volume. The first was to produce a text that would meet the
needs of pupils and teachers who live outside of the environment of the
large city. Training for citizenship in a democracy is a fundamentally
identical process in all communities, whether urban or rural. But, if it
really functions in the life of the citizen, this process must consist
largely in deriving educational values from the actual civic situations in
which he normally finds himself. Moreover, instruction that relates to
matters that lie beyond immediate experience must nevertheless be
interpreted in terms of that experience if it is really to have meaning. At
least half of the young citizens of America live in an environment that
is essentially rural. Hence their need for civics instruction that takes its
point of departure in, and refers back to, a body of experience that
differs in many ways from that of the urban citizen.
This does not imply that urban conditions should be ignored in the civic

education of the rural citizen. On the contrary, one of the things that
every citizen should be led to appreciate is the interdependence of
country and city in a unified national life. In the present volume
emphasis is given to this interdependence. For this reason, and because
of the fundamental principles which have controlled the development
of the text, it is believed that the book may perform a distinct service
even in city schools.
The second purpose in undertaking the present book has been to make
as obvious as possible the elements which, in the author's judgment,
characterize "community civics" and give it vitality. The Community
and the Citizen was a pioneer among texts that have sought to vitalize
the study of government and citizenship. The term "community civics"
became current only at a later time to designate the "new civics" which
that book represented. It seems to the author, however, that many
teachers and others have seized upon some of the more incidental, even
though important, features of the "new civics" without apparently
recognizing its really vital characteristics.
For example, the "new civics" performed a real service in giving
emphasis to the study of the "local community," which was being sadly
neglected ten or fifteen years ago. It was this emphasis, doubtless, that
gave rise to the name "community civics." But "local study," even
though labelled "community civics," may be, and often is, entirely
lacking in vitalizing features. On the other hand, the vitalizing methods
that should characterize community civics may be applied to the study
of our "national community," and even of the embryonic "world
community,"--and should be so applied in any "community civics" that
is worthy of a place in our schools in this critical period of national and
world history. The real significance of the term "community civics" is
to be found in its application to an interpretation of the
COMMUNITY-CHARACTER of national and international life
equally with that of town or neighborhood.
Another service that community civics performed was in introducing
certain elements of social or "sociological" study