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THE FOUNTAINHEAD OF DEMOCRACY* During the past two years I have been privileged to visit with educators and laymen in almost every section of the United States and in a dozen different countries in Western Europe, the Middle East, and South America. Through these many conversations two themes thread their way, each directly related to the teach- ing of democratic freedoms in our schools. There is a steadily increasing interest in citizenship education in this country. Farmers, laborers, professional people, businessmen--whatever group one cites, the same general question keeps recurring. Americans are asking: How can we best give a citizenry the wisdom, resourcefulness, and maturity needed for the perilous years ahead? Abroad, the people who look to the United States for leader- ship in the struggle against communist imperialism are listening and watching. They listen to our declarations of faith in the democratic ideals of justice, brotherhood, and equality of opportunity. They watch the way we conduct ourselves in domestic and foreign affairs. And they ask: How do American deeds measure up to the American Creed? *By Earl J. McGrath, U.S. Commissioner of Education, Federal Security Agency, Washington, D. C., published in The School Executive, February 1951, pp. 63-64.