Suppose A is a Native American boy, and B a foreign-born boy who speaks a foreign language:  does this make any difference in their right to life and health, an education, etc.?  Does it make any difference in their opportunity to satisfy their wants in these directions?

Can you think of persons in your community who have less opportunity to satisfy their wants than you have?  Can you think of any persons who have less right to satisfy their wants than you have?

The first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States comprise what is known as a “bill of rights.”  Study together in class this bill of rights (see Appendix) to see how many of the wants described in this chapter are there, provided for directly and indirectly.

Has your state constitution a bill of rights?  If so, read it together in class for the same purpose as suggested in the last question.

READINGS

Preamble of the Constitution of the United States (see Appendix).

The Declaration of Independence.

Dunn, Arthur W., The Community and the Citizen, Chapters, i, iv. 
(Heath).

Tufts, James H., The Real Business of Living (Henry Holt & Co.),
Chapter xxxix, ("Democracy as Equality").

Van Dyke, Henry, “Equality of Opportunity,” in Long’s American
Patriotic Prose, pp. 311, 312 (Heath).

See the note on reference materials in the Introduction to this book.

It should become a habit of both teacher and pupils to be on the constant lookout for news items and discussions in available newspapers and periodicals illustrative of the points made in each chapter or lesson.  Individual scrapbooks may be made, but more important than this is the assembling of such material as a class enterprise, its classification under proper heads, and its preservation in scrapbooks or in files as working material for succeeding classes.  There will always be enough for each class to do, while each class at the same time contributes to the success of the work of later classes.  The idea of service should dominate such work.

CHAPTER II

HOW WE DEPEND UPON ONE ANOTHER IN COMMUNITY LIFE

INTERDEPENDENCE AN IMPORTANT FACT

Nothing could be freer than air.  But even as we sit in our schoolroom, whether or not we get all the pure air we need, depends upon how the schoolhouse was built for ventilation, the number of people who occupy the room, the care that is taken by others to keep the room free from dust, the health and cleanliness of those who sit in the room with us.  If this dependence upon others is true in the case of the very air we breathe, how much more true it must be of other necessities of life that are not so abundant.