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This pioneering work explores the relationship between civic education, rural development, and social reform. Arthur William Dunn argues that the key to improving life in rural communities is to educate citizens about their rights and responsibilities, and to provide them with the skills and knowledge needed to participate fully in civic life. His insights are as relevant today as they were a century ago. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

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.

Arthur William Dunn (1868- 1927 ) was an American educator, born at Galesburg, Ill., and educated at Knox College and the University of Chicago. He began his career as instructor in English and lecturer in sociology at the University of Cincinnati (1896-98). He was also extension lecturer from 1896 to 1900, and from the latter year until 1910 headed the department of history and civics in the Shortridge High School, Indianapolis. From 1906 to 1910 he was director of civic education in the public schools of the same city; in 1910-11, he was civic secretary of the City Club of Philadelphia; in 1911-14, he served as executive secretary of the Public Education Association, New York City; and from 1914 to 1921, he held the office of specialist in civic education in the United States Bureau of Education.

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