mccreadv] AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE 223 



given one or two special and longer periods each week. In the 

 summer, part of this time may be occupied in practical work in the 

 garden, though most teachers report that outside of the planting 

 period the children do most of their gardening at noon and recesses. 

 At other times of the year in many schools the agricultural period 

 is on Friday afternoons. 



General Method of Teaching Elementary Agriculture 



In general the method of teaching is the nature-study method. 

 The topics selected for lessons are in accordance with the season 

 and also with the interests and activities of the farming community 

 surrounding the school. The object to be attained is not so much 

 to disseminate knowledge of agricultural facts as to awaken 

 interests in the common things of the farm and of farm life, to lead 

 to inquiry and reading, to direct activities, to stir ambitions, to 

 arouse a love of the country, to show the possibilities of agriculture 

 for a happy, independent, useful life, to make hungry for more 

 knowledge and further schooling, to use the agricultural environ- 

 ment and experiences of the country boy and girl as raw material 

 for the best possible kind of instruction in all the other subjects 

 taught in the school. It is putting the school in agriculture as 

 much as putting agriculture in the school ! It is educating country 

 boys and girls in terms of country life and for country needs! 

 It is discovering the country school for country people! It is 

 helping country people to find a new meaning in education for 

 themselves as farmers ! 



In one of the instruction sheets sent to teachers, the following 

 directions' are suggested for teaching Agriculture. They show 

 the application of the Nature Study method to the lesson in 

 Agriculture. 



i. Have a definite place on the time table for the lesson; the 

 first or last period of Friday afternoon is suggested as a suitable 

 one. 



2. Make it definitely known to the pupils a week before, if 

 possible, the subject of the next Friday's lesson; write this an- 

 nouncement on the blackboard. 



3. Let the lessons be in the nature of answers or solutions to 

 simple problems or tasks, make it clear that something is to be 

 done in order that something may become known. 



