1907] The Evolution of the Macdonald College 23 



subjects, Manual Training, Domestic Science and Nature Study, 

 where school garden work is emphasized, (b) To train teachers 

 in the new subjects of Manual Training, Domestic Science and 

 Nature Study, (c) To provide school gardens at a group of five 

 schools in each province, with a travelling instructor in charge 

 of each group, spending one da}^ each week at each of the schools 

 of the group, guiding both teacher and pupils. 



The term of three years during which the Fund agreed to 

 maintain these agencies is now nearly over, and we are able to 

 see the results, as it were, from a distance. These results are: 

 (a) A great interest has been aroused throughout Canada in the 

 matter of education, more especially rural education, and more 

 attention is now being given to the improvement of school 

 grounds and buildings, to the better remuneration of teachers, 

 and to the courses of study. (6) The leaders of education feel 

 that they have now a strong backing of public opinion for the 

 improvements they have in mind, (c) Nature Study, with the 

 school garden. Manual Training and Domestic Science are sub- 

 jects that vitalize and give interest to the work of the school. 

 They relate the school to the home, remove the tendency to rest- 

 lessness that prevails to an alarming extent in rural communities, 

 and furnish during the early years of the child "exercises through 

 which he acquires unconsciously the taste and capacity for 

 work," and also the mental attitude of enquiry into the meanings 

 of things in the presence of the facts, (d) The rural people can 

 be brought to appreciate good education whenever good illus- 

 trations are brought to their attention, and they show that they 

 appreciate it by increasing their school tax to maintain the new 

 school. The rate-payers of the consolidated schools have seen 

 visions during the last three years that disturb contentment, 

 and they will never be satisfied again with the old, poorly 

 equipped school of preconsolidation days. For example, the 

 average daily attendance has been trebled at the Consolidated 

 School, Kingston, N.B., and doubled at the Guelph School. 



The people naturally ask if by two men's work so much 

 good can be done, how much good can the State do with its 

 resources behind it? 



The Macdonald Movement is, in other words, a grand demon- 

 stration of the application of improved methods of education 

 which our most advanced educators have devised, but which the 

 state was unwilling to adopt into its educational system on 

 account of lack of public support. It is the forerunner of the 

 system of rural education supported by public funds, that pre- 

 pares the child for complete living on the farm. 



Finally came the estabHshment of the Macdonald College 



