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THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



March 19, 1910. 



of teaching, but to that of understanding the matters 

 that the educational system brings forward. The 

 work of the educationalist is to find the best means to 

 bring about this state of understanding. 



In July of last year, a Conference on Rural 

 Education was held in England. At this, teachers and 

 those who have the planning of methods of education 

 in their hands met together for the purpose of finding 

 the way in which the education of pupils in elementary 

 schools could be brought into line with their needs 

 ■when they leave such schools. It was agreed that the 

 ordinary curriculum which takes such pupils through 

 their course does not fit them sufficiently for the work 

 in which, they are engaged afterwards; in short, that 

 they leave school without understanding why or what 

 they have been taught. Those who were present at the 

 conference sought from their own experience a means 

 to modify or enlarge the system so that it may become 

 more adequate to do this, and it is a notable fact that 

 the teachers unanimously testified to the value of manual 

 work as a method of education. 



If such a form of education is to meet successfully 

 the demands that will be placed upon it, two important 

 requirements must be filled by it. These have their 

 effect, respectively, during school life and in the work 

 that the pupil must take up afterwards. In the first 

 connexion it must possess the criterion of giving the 

 understanding of which mention has just been made. 

 In the second, it must effect something toward fitting 

 the pupil for the service which will be demanded from 

 him in order that he may make a living. The search 

 for the best means of education can be made, then, in 

 the light of these two criteria. 



The experience of teachers tends further, every day, 

 to show that svibjects, as for instance arithmetic, can 

 be more easily understood by children if they are 

 taught by means of actual, every-day measurements 

 than if the attempt is made to impart ideas of such 

 subjects merely with the aid of abstract quantities. 

 The setting of the meaningless ' sum ' in which there 

 is little concrete aid to the imagination merely leads 

 to the learning of a ' rule '. Even when this rule has 

 been ' learnt ', nothing has been done to impart that 

 elasticity of mind to the pupil which will enable him 

 to appreciate an example for the working of which it 

 ay have to be varied in an intelligent manner. 

 What is worse, it is more than possible that he will leave 

 school devoid of the ability to make use of it in the 

 very instances when it is required by him to give 

 assistance. This suggests that his work in school 



should be arranged as nearly as possible to give 

 a picture of what his working life will be when he 

 leaves it. It is thus seen that the attempt to find 

 a way in which to arrange the work in school to the 

 best educational purpose has led naturally to the 

 discovery of a n\eans of making that work of a kind 

 which will be the most useful when the scholastic 

 educa,tion has come to an end. 



It has been pointed out already that education in 

 the West Indies, in any stage, must have an agricul- 

 tural trend if it is to fulfil its purpose in the best 

 inanner. It is therefore requisite to find out how 

 this may be given to it. For some time, now, 

 the school garden has been recognized as a valuable 

 means for the purpose. There has also been recog- 

 nition of the fact that it must not be used merely 

 to teach agriculture. There must be a much wider 

 appreciation of its possibilities for assisting in the 

 education of the pupil, if it is intended to do its 

 work properly. Every opportunity should be employ- 

 ed for the purpose of intimately connecting the 

 work of the school garden with that of the ordinary 

 subjects of the curriculum. As many of these subjects 

 as possible should begin in the garden, and be followed 

 up with all the aid that can be obtained from it. 



An illustration has been gi\-en already of the way 

 in which nature study, with the aid of the school garden, 

 can assist the teacher. Many others might be presented. 

 Under the old system, the teaching of composition 

 required great pains on the part of the teacher, arid 

 yet, few left school with anything like an adequate 

 knowledge of it. Now, the pupil willingly writes up 

 his gardening note book, because he is dealing with 

 something that affects him jjersonally; at the same 

 time, he gains a lasting power to write clearly and 

 strongly. The old reading lesson, with its uninteresting 

 subjects, listlessness and inattention, has given place to 

 one in which the pupil reads, and asks questions, about 

 things that are actually before him, and which 

 come into intimate relationship with his daily life. 

 This is why, in many cases, he is found reading books 

 and journals whose purpose is to assist him to get the 

 best out of his work. He is beginning to undertand 

 why and what he is taught. 



Such considerations enable it to be seen that, in 

 all stages, the kind of education required is the oile 

 which leads out to the matters of daily life. The 

 means for the provision of this are supplied by the 

 concrete example and by the mental experience that is 

 derived from the exercise of the powers of observation. 



