The subject had by this time become thor oughly established in the colleges and secondary schools. In the colleges the courses in govern ment had been introduced gradually through the eighties and nineties, usually, however, under the control of the professors of history, and sometimes even denominated as history courses. The separation of courses into dis tinctly history and distinctly government courses took place rapidly in the colleges, but in the secondary schools the combination lingered.
In 1908 a Committee of Five of the Ameri can Political Science Association and a Com mittee on Civics of the New England History Teachers' Association strongly recommended a course in civics for high schools which should be separated from the history course, and in 1911 a Committee of Five of the American Historical Association made recommendations to the same effect.
Organizations outside of academic circles began campaigns for the more effective teaching of civics in school and college. The most prom inent of these was the National Municipal League, which in 1901 began a series of reports on college work in government and in 1905 published a syllabus for elementary and sec ondary schools.
Following the activities of this organization the Bureau of Education at Washington ap pointed an agent in civic education and a special committee issued a report in 1915, urging the teaching of civics in elementary and secondary schools along somewhat new lines. This re port urged that emphasis be placed on 'Com munity Civics.) °The aim of community civics is to help the child to know his community . . . what it does for him and how it does it; what the community has a right to expect from him, and how he may fulfil his obligation; meanwhile cultivating in him the essential quali ties and habits of good citizenship?' Meantime the American Political Science Association had a new Committee of Seven at work, and in 1916 it published the most complete survey to date covering instruction in civics or government in elementary schools, junior high schools, high schools, colleges and universities. It summarizes all activities up to the present and makes constructive recommendations.
In spite of the commendable activities of these various bodies progress in the matter of getting thorough courses in civics introduced into the rural schools, elementary schools and high schools has been slow and yet the progress when considered over half a century has been very great.
The entrance of the United States into the war in 1917 awakened the public to the fact that there has been great neglect in putting into operation the recommendations so urgently pushed by the associations mentioned above, and now (1918) there is evident in many parts of the country a desire to do that which has been so long neglected.
The greatest difficulty encountered has been the lack of teachers properly prepared to teach the subject. Women, who form the overwhelm ing proportion of the teaching force, have, prob from the fact of their exclusion from participation in the active life of government, failed to evince any active interest in the sub ject. Such teaching as has been given has been of a purely formal kind from a textbook. At the time of the earliest introduction of the sub ject, instruction usually consisted of reading or studying the Federal Constitution and some times even committing it to memory. The very nature of its introduction in the form of an appendix to a history of the United States scarcely permitted of any other kind of method and even the proponents of its introduction seemingly had no conception that it could be taught in any other fashion.
Gradually separate textbooks were published, but these at first consisted of commentaries on the clauses of the Federal Constitution. The State and local governments were almost en tirely neglected. Even when these subjects were added, as they gradually came to be, in struction was of the most formal and unin teresting kind.
Any other kind of teaching demanded of the teachers was impossible to have for the reason that they did not know the subject except from a text. The better prepared teachers began to teach the subject of government as it was actu ally carried on and the demand for that kind of instruction kept growing. This was difficult to get because civics, of all subjects, was one which demanded for its successful teaching a thorough preparation and the habit on the part of the teacher of keeping abreast with the news of the day.