THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



Mauch 7, 1908. 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN 

 ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 



At the recent West Indian Agricultural Confer- 

 ence the subiect of agriculttiral education received 

 special attention, and the evidence brought forward 

 indicated that good work has been done of late years in 

 most of the West Indian Colonies and in British Guiana 

 to extend this branch of teaching, chiefly through the 

 medium of Nature Study and School Canlen plots. 



In view of this, therefore, the accompanying 

 particulars, frou. the Repirrt for 190tJ-7, of the Board of 

 Education of Great Britain, in reference to the progress 

 of ao-ricnltural education in that country should be of 

 considerable interest: — 



111 the teaching of ganlt'iiing tlieri' has been a great 

 increase : tbt- total number of boys on account of whom grants 

 were paid for instruction in this subjcL-t having licen ll.l'lG 

 in 19()5-G, as compared with 8,3.")9 in 1904-5, and 5,695 in 

 1903-4. 



The number of schools in the (.■ountry areas (excludhig 

 London and other i5elf-administei-eil urban areas) whirh 

 applied for a grant in tlie subject in ]9(l(;-7. was over 900, 

 as compared with o71 earning a grant in r.)(i:!4. (Jardening 

 is taught in practically every Knglisli ccjiuity. The 

 increase is almost entirely confined to those (■ounties in which 

 a Horticultural Lecturer has been ajipointed, part of whose 

 duties it is to organize and supervise school gardening, and 

 to train school teachers to teach it. This is the case in 

 .Staffordshiiv and Surrey, which top the list of counties with 

 idnety-eight and seventy-nine recognized sehooo! gardens 

 respectively. Moreover, it is in the counties —now upwards of 

 twenty — that possess a Horticultural Lecturer, that school 

 gardening is, as a rule, best carried out. Kvidence continues 

 to be received of the usual eticct of gardening on the 

 general work of the scliool, especially where the teachers are 

 able to centre round the practical work some of the arithmetic, 

 drawing, reading, and nature study. 



Last year refercn<-e was made to the defect in most of 

 the .school'gardening that it was not dealt with as a branch 

 of nature study, i.e., as a study of the plant in relation to 

 environment, the opportunity of developing the general 

 intelligence of the scholars in rur;d work thus being largely 

 lost. An attempt has been made in certain counties to 

 provide a remedy liy issuing a syllabus of nature study for 

 the hardening clas.ses. Rut this is useless if the teachers 

 are not themselves niituiv students, and it cannot be 

 too strongly insisted upon that imposing a .syllabu.s in 

 such cases may lead to the worst form of text-book teaching. 

 Twenty-one counties already make some provision for aiford- 

 ini; tlie teachers a training in nature study, but niucli 

 remains to be done. The lioard have recognized for grant 

 ;i numlier of Saturday classes iiiid summer courses in nature 

 .study and gardening, and have jirovided during the year 

 a course of nature study as an optional suliject for the prelim- 

 inary examination for the Teacher's Certificate, in atldition to 

 the course of rural .science (including gardening) in the 

 Tr^iiuing College Regulations referred to iu last year's R</H>ii_ 



One of the most encouraging features in the school 

 i.aturi' study movement is the increase in the iiumher of 

 .school exhibits of nature study and rural economy at 

 agricidtural shows and local flower .shows. The exiiibit.s liave 

 in many cases been of a very high order of merit. To the 



cldldren such exhibitions i)rovide a stimulus ; to the teachers 

 they provide fresh ideas for work in their own schools ; to the 

 general agricultural jiublic they demonstrate that the 

 children's studies have a very real bearing on their future- 

 work in life. 



Of other rural subjects, increased attention is being paid 

 to fruit culture as part of school gardening, thus carrying- 

 out the rccnmmendatiou of the Deiiartmental Committee on 

 the fruit inilustry in Great Britain. The Committee also 

 advocated the teaching of gardening in training colleges. Bee- 

 keeping is also .sometimes associated with gardening, or recog- 

 nized as a subject of nature study. From time to time the 

 Board are asked to recognize, as attendance at school, time 

 spent in manual work affording a direct training for 

 rural life. The Board have always given syni[>athetic 

 consideration to these cases, but local circumstances have up 

 to the present prevented the work being started. During 

 this year, however, the Board provisionall}- sanctioned instruc- 

 tion in thatching, aiid the work was carried out. The Board's 

 Inspectors reported favourably upon its educational value as^ 

 taught in this case, as a form of manual instruction, but it is 

 understood that the considerable expen.se of providing such 

 instruction will prevent the experiment being repeated. 



I)aiiyiiig has been re-introduced into the code as 

 a special grant-earning subject. It was felt that as a manual 

 suliject for girls it was one that taught nicety and precision ; 

 as an observational subject it was one that had developed 

 intelligence in an important liranch of domestic work ; and 

 that it had the additional advantage that it is a practical 

 means of giving a kijowledge of the principles of hygiene. 

 It was stated that, in a western county, a course _ of 

 dairying to elementary .school girls had led them to .seek 

 further instruction m the subject after leaving the school, 

 thus having the ctl'ect of arousing that desire for further 

 ednr'ation which all elementary education should produce. 

 It is not ea.sy to provide for instruction in rural subjects 

 in small village schools, an.! the Board have had under 

 consideration proposals for establishing upjier classes in 

 centrally situated schools where special subjects could be 

 taught, especially in connexion with schools ])os.se.ssing an 

 endowment which it was thought might be utilized to defray 

 the .special expenditure involved. 



SCHOOL GARDENS IN JAMAICA. 



The section of tliu .laiii:iie.i Rfpni-t for l90ii-7 

 which relates to educalional woik in the colon)' contains 

 the following note relating to school gaixlcns .".ik! ihcir 

 educational value ; — 



It is pointed tiut by the chief Insiiector of Schools that 

 certain changes made hi the code last year have stimulated 

 the formation and maintenance of school gardens with great 

 educational benefit, not only to the school, Imt to iiracticai 

 agriculture in their neighbourhood. It. should, however, never 

 be forgotten that the main object of such work in elementary 

 .schools is in fact es.sentially identical w itli thai of inanual 

 training. It aims at the training of the hand and eye and 

 the general development of the powers of ob.sorvation under 

 circumstauces, and in a medium, which eorres|inii(l to tin- 

 conditions under which a great majority of the children will 

 earn their livclihooiL .'\ new olHcer who has had experience 

 of their wf>rkiiig in the I'niletl States lias been aiipointcd 

 Inspector of school gardens. 



