Training boys for the obligations and responsibilities of citizenship has been undertaken in Winston-Salem, N. C., along rather broad and unique lines. After nearly a year's successful operation the Winston-Salem plan is worthy of careful consideration, and possibly of imitation. The principal characteristics of this plan are, first, cooperation between the public schools and the local board of trade; second, the establishment of a department of government and economics in the city high school; and third, the formation of a boys department, or a "Juvenile Club," as it is called, of the board of trade.
At the beginning of the 1912-13 school year, Supt. R. H. Latham, of the city schools, provided, as a part of the high-school curriculum, a course in government and economics open to the senior students, and placed the new department under the direction of the secretary of the board of trade,[1] who, with the approval of the board, had volunteered his services. Under this department, the students are taught the elements of government, special attention being given to analysis and comparison of the city, county, State, and Federal Governments. During the term ending with the Christmas holidays, mock elections were held, and the class was organized as city council, State general assembly, and as the Congress of the United States.
Immediately after Christmas a series of lectures treating of the fundamental principles of economics were arranged, and the attention of the students directed to the important industrial, commercial, and agricultural problems of this country, particularly the problems of the Southern States.
As a result of this work the boys developed a very active interest in public affairs, and to hold this interest and at the same time make the work of lasting value it was recognized that their historic and theoretical study of political and economic problems must in some way be connected with the practical, everyday experiences in the industrial centers. Winston-Salem being essentially a manufacturing community, the means of studying actual conditions was immediately available. As a feasible method of undertaking this it was suggested that there be organized a juvenile club of the board of trade and the establishment of a closer cooperation between the work of the high school and that of the board.
- ↑ Mr. LeRoy Hodges, an economist and statistician of Petersburg, Va., was acting as secretary of the Winston-Salem Board of Trade at this time.
