Excerpt from The American Citizen in Pennsylvania: The Government of the State and of the Nation The purpose of this work is to present to the pupils in the public schools in the Commonwealth some practical infor mation as to the rights and duties which belong to American citizenship. The study of civics is {now receiving increased attention in our schools, particularly since the school laws require that teachers shall have a fair knowledge of civil government, including State and local government. In view of this legislation, a text - book to meet the needs of the schools should treat the local and State government as at least of equal importance with that of the Nation. It has been said that many a youth has grown to manhood with so little ap preciation of the Commonwealth in which he lives as to re gard it simply as a geographical division. The study of the State government and of the National Government are of equal importance. The student of civil government should begin with that which is near at hand and of immediate interest, and proceed to that which is distant and of remote concern. He should not begin with that rare and precious afterthought and flower of government, the Constitution of the United States, but with the material forms that are close at hand. In connection with the ordinary lessons in reading, the children should be made acquainted with words suggesting civic ideas, as cit izen, soldier, officer, law, justice, country, state, city, and nation. Then, in elementary lessons, the children should gain general notions of local government and organization. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.