" As the result of their inquiry, they drew up a
statement of the aims of civics which in general and in detail
differed little from the ideas accepted in America.
If compulsory continued education is introduced, for boys and girls
who now have no school education after the elementary school, it is of
the utmost importance that the direct study should be included in
some form or other before the age of eighteen is reached, and it is
in connection with this type of school rather than in connection with
the elementary or secondary school that constructive efforts should be
made.
It must be remembered that Mr. Acland, when Minister for Education,
introduced the subject into the Elementary Code of 1895 and provided a
detailed syllabus. This was generally approved not only as the action
of a progressive administrator but as an evidence of the new spirit of
freedom beginning to reveal itself in the educational system.
There are some education authorities, like the County of Chester,
which enact that the study of citizenship shall proceed side by side
with religious education, but the majority leave it to the teachers to
do all that is necessary by the adaptation of other subjects and the
development of school spirit.
The elaborate nature of Mr. Acland's syllabus tended to defeat its
object, and some held it to be psychologically unsound, but there has
also been lack of suitable text-books.
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